A Tale of Two Avatars
by KingTK414
Summary: Years after Amon, Korra is attacked and nearly dies. Somehow, this leads to the next Avatar being born into the Earth Kingdom, Tal. His parents are Equalists, but he and his younger twin sisters are benders. They are left orphaned after an Equalist sttack and move to Republic City. Now Tal has to train with Korra, probend, and he is dating Korra's daughter! M for violence etc
1. The Beginning

Chapter 1: The Beginning

The legend of the Avatar had always been a good story to tell children. It was told as to them before their parents would tuck them into sleep. Told around the fire by the oldest member of a family to everyone else during times when al would be under the same roof. Sometimes told when out in the wilderness and sometimes by teachers to students at schools all over the earth.

Almost everyone alive could tell you something...hell, anything about the Avatar.

This however is "officially" off the record and therefore...this "story" was never told.

It all started about 75 years after the end of the Hundred Year War. Or for those who never appreciated the powerful world of academia's most holiest sect of "History". It started about 5 years after Avatar Korra arrived in Republic City.

Avatar Korra of the Southern Water Tribe, to those who respected the Avatar and the power that came with the position, was seem as a prodigy who was able to master 3 of the 4 main elements that make up our world: Water, Earth, and Fire. She had done this by the time she was only 17, one of the youngest to do so. Her only known competition to that record was her immediate predecessor, Avatar Aang of the Southern Air Nomads.

Avatar Korra came to Republic City and was able to manage learning to master the final element: Air. That was however a few years after she had first arrived in the city. She spent most of her time here trying to keep the peace not only between "Benders" of the various nations that made up the United Republic of Nations, but now also the growing group of "Non-benders" who wished to stop the advantage that benders had over them. These people were known as "Equalists". The Equalists, under the leadership of a man named Amon, violently took over the city and any bender that they captured was "cleansed of their impurity" by Amon. He somehow knew a way to take away a Bender's ability permanently.

Avatar Korra, with the help of her friends who made up was called "Team Avatar", was able to defeat Amon. But the idea of "Equality" between Benders and Non-Benders continued to grow. Amon ending up being defeated, he was a disguised waterbender who could also do the dark art of bloodbending. After this, the Avatar had finally gained the power to airbend and even could energybend after losing her powers to Amon only to have them given back to her by spirits of the past Avatars.

After Amon was defeated, The Equalists disappeared to try and regroup and rebuild, while the Avatar ended up soon marrying her love, and began to start a family. Her husband was a bit of a mystery, some pro-bender firebender who years later, was selected to become the next chief of police after Chief Lin Bei Fong was given her earthbending back and reinstalled as the chief.

About 5 years after Avatar Korra had arrived in Republic City and had made her presence know to the world, the Equalists rebelled again and again. Korra, would intervene to protect the innocent, regardless of their side in the conflict. During one of those rebellions on a dark night, Avatar Korra was killed while trying the mediate between the two sides. While she and her friends stood in the middle of Republic's City's largest park, surrounded on all sides by people. A women ran out of the crowd, she appeared to be holding an infant in her arms. She was small and appeared to be no older than18 or so. She approached the young Avatar, begging that she used her waterbending to help her treat her baby of wounds sustained when an Equalist had attacked them. When Avatar Korra, went up to look at the baby, the woman drew out a knife and drove it straight into Korra's stomach. She collapsed and was bleeding furiously.

Mako, one of the members of the team and the man many suspected was romantically involved with Korra, rushed after the attacker, but when he finally caught her, she took that same knife and stabbed it into her stomach.

But not before shouting these two words, "Equality Now!"

The Avatar was quickly taken away from the scene by a sky bison and taken to Air Temple Island to be cared for. The best healers in the world had been station on the island but they knew very little on how to treat such a wound. All they could do was help the Avatar feel as little pain as possible as the life from her slowly drifted away. Those who watched the island from a distance after the attack claim to have witnessed a very small lightning storm erupt on the island hours later.

Many believed that this was the sign that meant that the Avatar had died.

But the Avatar had not died from her wound. And soon she was back from a lengthy recovery and back to protecting the world. But the Equalists soon had a new leader and the world was far from safe. This new leader was soon dispatching teams to major towns and cities throughout the world to hide and wait until the Equalists had regained the numbers need to retake the world. This new leader was different, Amon only wanted peace and would take away a bender's bending. This new leader, who soon was being called "The Doctor", was looking for a more permanent solution to this so called "Bender Problem".


	2. The New Benders

Chapter 2: The New Benders

About a year after the death of Avatar Korra, reports of Equalists going into town and villages and into the homes of any known Earth Benders, grew at an alarming rate. One of those teams sent out from Republic City found themselves stationed in a small town in the Earth Kingdom where the tree line meet the tundra. The town was so isolated from the rest of the Earth Kingdom that the only way in or out was by a small trail during the summer, or by airship or bi-plane during the winter.

The town was called "Tree Line". Not much thought was given into naming it. The only real featured that distinguished it from any other town in the kingdom was that the town was built have south of the tree line and had a vast forest of large ancient pine trees around it. The other half, the one north of the tree line was out on the vast open snow tundra that went all the way into the ocean and then north into the land controlled by the Northern Water Tribe. The town of Tree Line was founded a decade after the Hundred Year War by settlers from both the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom. People who could water bend, lived right alongside those who could earth bend. Those who were non-benders were always helped by those who could bent the elements. The town made a law stating that any aggression by a bender to a non-bender or vice versa, was punishable first by fine, then by jail, and lastly by banishment to either the woods of the taiga, or the barren wasteland of the tundra.

The team of two Equalists who were stationed in the town found this rule quite nice. it promoted true "equality". These two people however, were ordered by their superior to live in the town and not let anyone known why they were truly there. The team of a young husband and his wife were to only be known to the locals as non-bending medical practitioners who wished to lend their medical skills to the town. They arrived with little in the way of possessions but had a good amount of money with them and settled down to do their job...follow secret orders given to them by "The Doctor".

The two Equalists alerted the town about their expertise in the medical field the positions of two doctors in the town's small clinic. Anyone who needed medical treatment in the whole region came to that clinic...including expectant mothers.

In the span of a year one of those mothers would give birth to the next Avatar...it wasn't expected because Avatar Korra was still alive, why would a new Avatar be born?

To the female doctor/equalist, her job as a midwife was simple. Help the mother give birth and then secretly use techniques she was taught to identify newborn benders and then return the newborn to its mother. Later she would write a report on the child and reference it later as the years went by until one showed signed of being able to bend more than just one element. Along with not only a good paycheck waiting for then in the bank back in Republic City. The two of them had been married a year before Avatar Korra's near death attack, and decided to begin raising a family.

Their hopes and dreams of returning to the Equalists as rich and famous, was destroyed one day the following spring. The female equalist gave birth to her own child. She never thought of testing her own child for bending, considering the fact that both she and her husband were non-benders. She did write a report but said that her son, Tal, was a non-bender. She was surprised months later when her toddler son earthbended while throwing a tantrum. He stomped his foot on the ground out back in their yard of their home in the forested part of Tree Line, and the large decorative boulder in the year shout out of the ground, flew ten feet into the air and then slammed down back to the ground.

Tal's mother ran from their home to the clinic to find her husband treating a logger for a large cut on his leg from a large saw. She ran into the examination room in a panic and told the love of her life what had happened. He calmed her down, called another doctor to finish the treatment of his patient and then he escorted his wife back home telling her she must have dreamed it. They found their son still in the garden, sitting on one of the two dozen short stone columns he had made since his mother left and he had discovered that stomping his feet could do such a marvelous thing.

Tal's parents could not believe it, their son was a bender.

The mother sent her son to his room to take a nap while she and her husband discussed around a hot pot of tea, about how to deal with this discovery. Death was out of the question and so was injury, he was their son. Adoption was next, but that too failed to progress. Then the two of them finally came to what they fought was the unbelievable:

Betray the Equalists.

The Remote location of Tree Line made betrayal of those who were far away very easy. Every couple of months Tal's parents had to call by phone to their superior and relate any report on the number of benders being born throughout the world. The reports for the next 10 years were always the same, many new benders. Many so called new "potential enemies". Other teams had been recalled back to Republic City by then and now only a dozen teams were left. Tal's parents were one of them. But they did not mind being stuck in Tree Line, it was now home and they had a family, and they did not just have Tal. They now also had twin daughters, who were also born as benders. The girls were completely identical except for two traits, one had blue eyes while the other had amber colored eyes. But they two, could also bend, one fire bended while the other water bended.

One might have thought that two equalist parents would have gone insane having bender children, but now the two of them had fully giving up on the radical idea of "equality" but they did teach their children that the town's idea of helping one another, bender or non-bender was the right idea.


	3. The Doctor's Visit

Chapter 3: The Doctor's Visit

Only about a decade after the death of Avatar Korra did things begin to go wild. Tal and his fire bending sister, Tai, and his water bending sister Tay, were told never to bend outside of the home and to never bend if their parents had visitors unless given permission to do so.

The three children were called even different names when in public and at school. Tal was called Mal. Tai was Mai, and Tay was May. Only their parents called them by their real names of Tal, Tai and Tay. Everyone else knew them as Mal, Mai and May. This was so that their powers were hidden whenever their parents had their equalist superiors arrive for an inspection.

This man that showed up once a year was what their parents called "The Doctor".

His visits lasted no more than a day. Some years he visited for only a few hours, others lasted from dawn until dusk. He never showed any emotion, he just listen to the children's parents, read a few reports, inspected the clinic, maybe toured the town, and only once did he ever eat dinner with the family. Tal saw that every visit seemed to terrify his parents. Tai told him once that he visited her class one time in school. He only came into one class, he never entered Tal's classroom. He just quick glanced at the children, and said only one thing.

"How many benders are here?"

Tai and Tay knew that because they were only supposed to bend at home and only with their parents watching, the two girls never raised their hands and no one ever told the man that the two twins were benders. But a vast amount of class, albeit nervously, did raise their hands. The Doctor recorded the number on a clipboard and then left.

The man once asked Tal when he was ten years old how he felt about benders. He replied with the answer that his parents made him swore whenever an equalist was to ask him such a question. "I hate them sir. They use those powers of theirs to gain an advantage over us who don't'." The man almost smiled when he heard that answer.

The Doctor replied to Tal with his own "personal opinion" about benders. "Boy, one day, you and your family, along with all other non-benders on this world like us will never have to live under the tyrannical control of those monsters who call themselves "Benders". One day all benders shall meet their end." The rest of evening he even asked the children to tell him what their parents have taught them about chi-blocking and the Equalist leader, Amon." All three children replied as they were taught and prayed that the Doctor never found out about their powers.

When Tal was sixteen years old and Tai and Tay were both fifteen, the Doctor came to visit once again. The visit was much shorter than the others. He only asked the three kids a few strange questions.

"Have you ever learned anything about "The Avatar".

The answered yes, but it was common knowledge that they were taught who the Avatar was at school. All the legends of Avatars from the earliest record accounts all the way up to the latest news in the life of Avatar Korra. He then asked which kingdom the next Avatar should be from. The answered with their home, the Earth Kingdom.

He then told them that he was very sure that he and the equalist had discovered the most likely location the next Avatar would be born. The parents asked where. He answered with only one word...here. Tal built up the courage to ask the Doctor who was the Avatar. He answered with the saying that he would not know the exact individual because they were not yet born. And one major part in the Equalists' plans had to happen.

Avatar Korra had to died...preferably killed.

Tree Line, he said was the most likely place because of the vast amount of benders being born compared to non-benders. He then told them all that he had the solution for that problem. After this, he left to go back to the Equalist headquarters. He never said what the solution was and not even the three kid's parents knew of the doctor's nefarious plans either.

During the summer after that visit, the children had been out in the woods near the town practicing their bending in a very secluded location. They had also been begun to train in Chi-Blocking, the art of temporary removing a bender's ability to used an element. The three of them have all had their latest birthdays and their parents had bought all of them some of the latest weaponry used be the Equalists today. The Doctor had sent a package months before with a few knives, swords, and a note ordering that the three children be trained to carry on the future of the Equalists.

Their parents were nervous about allowing their teenage children to use such tools of pain an death but in a few months, all three children had nearly mastered all of them. But each child had also become very proficient in their respected element of bending. However, fate seemed to in the eyes of some to have blessed, or in the eyes of others, to have cursed Tal. Not only did he have a great command of earth bending, he began to show the ability, although a very small amount of it, to fire bend as well.

It was his seventeen birthday and his parents had made him a cake, with candles on it. Instead of blowing out the candles, his breath nearly made them grow into a small inferno. This seemed to only happen with his sister Tai, who did the exact same thing when she was three. The family now knew that the Doctor was right about concluding that their hometown of Tree Line was the location of the next Avatar.

Avatar Korra did not need to die, the next Avatar had already been born. And the new Avatar was their son Tal.


	4. The Terror at Tree Line

Chapter 4: The Terror at Tree Line

After that, Tal's parents really began to panic. As soon was school was out for the summer two months later, they sent all three to visit a "contact" their parents had meet with after their decision to betray the Equalists when Tal was born. The three of them got to spend their summer instead of in the warmth of the woods with their friends from Tree Line , spent a month at the North Pole with a family of water benders of the Northern Water Tribe.

Tay was happy to be with people who could do what she could and began to even dress like a waterbender by the end of the visit, knowing full well that she would never be allowed to wear such an outfit back home because it would give her up as a bender. Tai, took the trip well too but not as much as her twin, although she did begin to hang with a certain cute boy from the tribe. A bit of a misfit who had somehow managed to be born a firebender. Only Tal felt out of sync during the visit, he was mainly an earthbender, but he had no ground to use, only ice. He dared not to ever firebend because everyone there knew he was only a earth bender not the Avatar.

This trip did however have one nice thing he liked, everyone here loved to listed to the Pro-bending matches on the radio. Every night, the one radio in the village with a powerful enough receiver would broadcast the matches live from Republic City. A decade before, or about 5 years after Avatar's Korra's death, the two male members of Team Avatar became two of the leaders of Republic City's police department. They even opened the ranks to allow anyone to join, bender or not. The city had finally been able to drive out the Equalist threat and was quick to recover but the Equalists vowed to retake the city once more.

Pro-bending was so popular again that the children in this village had even managed to modify the sport to a more water bender based game. Two people who be water benders while one had to pretend to be a earthbender by only using waterbending to launch discs of ice at opponents. Tal could only watch from the sidelines as Tay would take on all comers and Tai would sometimes be allowed to use her firebending in certain matches. He had to spend his free time training in more chi-blocking and a new skill he had learned from the boys of the ton who would transverse the village solely by rooftop and never touch the ground. They called it free-running and soon Tal could keep up with even the best of them. The trip was like this every day until one day, one horrible day.

That morning, a outlook had sported a thick pillar of smoke coming over the horizon from where Tree Line would be. This was not too much of a surprise as the woods near the town would catch fire every now and then, people from this village would go and help to put out those fires. Before going to assist, they always sent a radio message first to Tree Line, asking if they needed assistance. But no one answered, the call to the town was sent every hour on the hour the rest of the day, but still no reply. Then it was decided that the three kids and every able bodied water bender take a boat to the town.

After a half day long boat trip and a three hour trek across the tundra. The group reached the town to find it completely intact. It was only missing one detail, no one was in it. The entire town had been deserted. The wildfire they had seen the smoke from was in fact 10 miles away, deep into the forest. The group took some logging trucks that had belonged to town's biggest business, the logging firm, and drove down the road into the woods hoping that the entire town was too busy trying to put out the fire. They arrived to find that it was not the forest that was burning. It was their bodies. The entire town, all 5000 or so, had been taken to a large clearing in the woods, and then killed by Equalists, who then put the bodies of the dead onto a gigantic bonfire.

Tal, Tai and Tay were the only survivors of a town who had been massacred. Nothing was left but ashes. The doctor had turn the Equalist's agenda from one of taking away bending, to that of killing all benders and killed anyone who was siding with the benders.

The Doctor's version of "Equality" was the complete genocide of all benders.

The rest of the day and beginning of the evening, Tal and his sisters went to their house and packed as many of their belongings and valuables as they could. Money, clothing, weapons, gear, books...etc until they loaded as much as they could carry with the largest hiking packs they could find. The rest was abandoned, just like the rest of the town. The three of them spent the majority of the trip back to the Water Tribe village crying and being comforted by those who had witnessed the horror with them. The town was willing to adopt the three of them but that night, the three of them stowed away on a ship which was travelling from the seaside village to Republic City.

Tal, Tai and Tay were hell bent on bringing those who were responsible for this terror to justice, and Republic City was where they would start.


	5. Breaking News

Chapter 5: Breaking News

The early part week-long trip on the cargo ship was spent helping the crew out in return for allowing passage to Republic City after the three kids were found trying to steal some food from the galley. The Captain wanted to throw the three of them in jail as soon as they made port but changed his mind after finding about the massacre.

One night, while everyone was in the dining room eating dinner, the radio broadcast went from music to static and then to a voice. Tai screamed and covered her ears when she here the voice introduce himself as "The Doctor". Tay broke into a crying fit and Tal shut his eyes and tried not listen as the Doctor went on to say that the time for Equality had come once again and that Tree Line was only the beginning. Benders would soon either have their powers stripped from them or they would be killed. Those who sympathized with benders would be jailed or killed.

Tal only opened his eyes after hearing the radio on the wall broadcasting this message burst into a shower of sparks. Everyone was looking at him because he had metalbended his steak knife into flying across the room and sail right into the radio's speaker. Tal had not even thought of doing it but he just did it.

"Sorry about that." he said nervously to everyone as they continued to just stare at him, "I just got a little emotional. That's all." The crew soon went back to their meal and the whole incident was forgotten.

"Don't worry about it kid," said one of the sailors sitting closest to him and his sisters, "I don't blame you after having to cope with life after all you three been through this week. But just to make sure something like that doesn't happen again, how bout you three stay above deck more often and keep practicing your bending. You three might be a little young still, but I bet you could take on quite a few of those pro-bending teams in Republic City."

Tai and Tay looked at each other and then at Tal, both of them had a large grin on their face. Republic City did have a junior pro-bending league, and the three of them did need a way to earn a steady income. The poor man did not know that Tal could have not just sent the cutlery flying around the place. He could have also could have set the whole room ablaze. He was most likely the Avatar. And according to the Equalists, the Avatar from the Earth Kingdom was now dead and so they were now keeping an eye on newborns in the Fire Nation for the next Avatar. It would all be just a crazy chase because the Avatar was still alive. He was still alive.

The rest of the trip was spent honing their skills as Tay continued to nearly master water bending. Tai became able to breathe fire like a dragon and began to be able to generate lightning. Tal found out he had a natural talent for metalbending, the sub-study of earth bending invented not even a century earlier, but also found out that being out in the wind began to notice the pattern of the sea wind.

Near the end of the voyage, he was sparring with Tai when instead of a blast of fire shooting from his hand, a very small blast of air was shot instead. Instead of Tai being sent backwards in a wall of flames, her own blast of fire pushed Tal over back onto the deck. Tay, who was watching began to laugh hysterically, until Tai shouted to her that Tal had just airbended.

"Wait a minute," Tay said as she used a jet of sea water to douse a small fire that began to start on Tal's pants. "Our Brother, can bend not only earth and fire, but now air too!" It took a few seconds to sink into her until she remembered what that had to mean.

"Tal is the Avatar!" Tay screamed as she began to just up and down all over the place and then soon Tai join in the fun and hugged her twin and kept hopping like crazy as the two of them repeatedly shouted at the top of their lungs. "Tal is the Avatar! Our brother is the Avatar!" Sailors on deck began to look at the three of them wondering what in the hell was going on. Usually they watched because the girls liked to show off and flirt, but they knew any of the men were to advance on them would be meet with a swift beating by their earthbending brother.

Tal made his sisters stop and told them to keep it quick because their home and everyone in it was killed because of the Equalists. If news got out he was the next Avatar, even though Avatar Korra was alive, the Equalists would be back on the trail to try and kill them too. All because the spirit of the Avatar decided to go into him and not anyone else in the Earth Kingdom.

I was too late however to keep it a secret from the crew of the ship. Everyone had heard the two 16 year old girls going wild with joy at the news that their older brother was the Avatar. This soon got them escorted to the bridge of the ship to meet with the captain. They were told to take a seat at a table on the bridge while the captain ordered everyone else to leave the bridge, leaving only him and the three teenagers.

The captain, who had already introduced himself to them earlier in the week when he had found that they had stowed aboard his ship, the over 40 year old Captain Tahno, rolled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of the White Lotus symbol on his forearm. He told them that he was a member of a secret organization under the name the "White Lotus" whose job was to protect and train the Avatar.

The teens gazed at him in amazement but stopped when he told them that he would not be able to offer much in the way of help other than offer an old apartment he still owned from decades before when he was a star pro-bender. It was abandoned but still under his ownership. And better yet, it was near the pro-bending arena. He then briefed them about a man who was married to the woman who ran Future Industries but ran the whole pro-bending program in Republic City. His name was Bolin.

Captain Tahno also revealed he did not believe that Tal was the Avatar until he had seen him bend three elements. Because he would not have believed that the Avatar was back because of one very important detail.

The White Lotus had suffered a schism a decades before. Half was old school and considered that the avatar was to be solely trained to master all four elements as soon as possible. Any other outside education like history, math, engineering, art, and music was considered useless. The Avatar could learn to read and write but was only allowed to read books on past Avatar's and books about bending. The side Tahno was part of, the new school side, considered bending training was needed to be done alongside all the other areas of other education. They also considered that the Avatar could marry when old enough, and raise a family. Not just protect the world like the other side wanted to. There were even rumors that if the old school side was able to get the next Avatar before the new side did, they would use methods of torture and mind control to make the Avatar in their side's image.

The old side had even tried to capture Korra and Mako's children. But it had been almost 5 years since the last attempt. It seemed as if that side was nearly gone. But there were rumors too that they joined forces with the new Equalists.


	6. Welcome to Republic City

Chapter 6: Welcome to Republic City

The day after being told such startling-and juicy-news about Avatar Korra. Captain Tahno's ship finally entered the massive bay called Yue Bay and docked at Republic City's port. The three teenagers want to see their newly offered home from Tahno but he had to help them get past a startling new hurdle.

The United Republic of Nations Customs and Border Control.

If you were moving into the city, you had to register with them first. The thing was that Tahno did not trust most of the customs officials and told the teen that some could be under the control of the Equalists. If they found out that 3 teens had survived the massacre at Tree Line, the Equalists might go after them to finish the job. And he knew just the man to make sure that news wasn't out until much later.

They went to an empty station and waited until a middle aged man arrived and flashed a tattoo exactly like Tahno's. "Kids," Tahno said as he handed the man a letter that was to be sent to someone-very important- and high up on the chain of command of the White Lotus. "This is Skoochy, he is an earth bender who specializes in doing undercover work for the White Lotus." Skoochy tipped his customs official hat as he began to fill out paper work for the three teenagers. He began to ask questions and Tahno was the only one who answered.

"Names?"

"Tal, Tai and Tay," Tahno said as he pointed to each teenager. "No last name."

"Ages?"

"Tal is 17 and both the girls are 16."

"Hometown."

"Tree Line, Earth Kingdom."

Skoochy looked up from his work and eyed the teens. "Wasn't that the town that just got.."

"Yes but you need to keep this on the low down, okay Skoochy?"

"Absolutely, If anyone asks these three had left the town months before and traveled in the Northern Water Tribe's territory until hitching a ride with you to get here." He held up the paper and pointed something to Tahno. "See! Right there, left the town of Tree Line 6 months ago and were backpacking it around the North Pole."

Tahno easily understood but some people around them began to look at the group, "Yes officer, and I would like to rid my hands of these three ruffians before they cost me any more to feed them!" He was trying to divert people's attention from them. Especially anyone who might be in line with the Equalists.

"Well the paper work is done so they are no longer your problem Captain," Skoochy said as he quickly filed the papers and then handed a key to Tay. "There you go kids! Your new lives await you in Republic City." And then he disappeared into the shadows.

Tahno then led them out of the port and began the somewhat long walk to his old apartment. He told the three teens about his old past of being a star pro-bender. He did also state that his team did cheat sometimes and when Amon attack the Arena years ago after he had beaten the Avatar, he was stripped of his water bending. He told them that he was grateful that Avatar Korra gave him chance to redeem himself years ago and become part of the White Lotus. His father was once a Captain in the United Republic Navy which allowed Tahno access to some early cash to used to cheat his was into stardom. His dad had also not only taught him how to water bend, but also how to sail a ship. This made Tahno a natural choice of becoming a sea captain after his powers were taken away by Amon. A captain of a ship that would ferry the Avatar wherever the Avatar needed to go.

They finally reached the apartment complex and went to the top floor almost 5 stories in the air. The fully-furnished apartment turned out to be large enough to have a good-sized central room to serve as a dining/living room. There was a small kitchen which also lead to a small roof-top patio, and there were even three separate bedrooms, but only had one bathroom. The only issue that seemed to exist was that everything was covered in a nice thick layer of dust.

The dust was soon flying all over the place when Tal sneezed and he accidently air-bended while doing it. But Tahno quickly opened some windows and soon Tal was air bending all the dust out of the apartment. The place would still need to be cleaned a good deal but at least the three teenaged orphans had a new home.

Tahno let them explore the place for a few minutes as he went over to a wall in the main room where there were multiple pictures of him and his team back in the old days. Before they had all lost their bending. After he lost his, Tahno never spoke with his old teammates, they were in on the idea of cheating so after they lost their powers to Amon that night the Equalists attacked the arena, they just packed up their things from this very apartment and had never been heard from since. He on the other hand, was stuck in the city trying to get his bending back. He tried the healer, then mystics, and even tried research on energy bending at the city library. He only found that once sentence about it.

Only the Avatar could energy bend.

After he had seen that, Tahno gave up on bending but felt that he needed to make up for his past. He sought out Korra and beg, not to get his bending back, but just to be forgiven. Months later, after Amon was beaten, Korra offered to restore his bending, he accepted her offer and swore on his life to protect her and her family. He became a waterbender again, and also a member of the new White Lotus.

He considered these three orphaned teens now part of that family. "You three are more than welcomed to refurnish the place any way you like." he told them as they all met back in the main room. "First thing you should do is get rid of these cursed photos of me."


	7. A Few Little Problems

Chapter 7: A Few Little Problems

Tahno finally left the three orphaned teenagers, only after taking them also to a nearby branch of the First United Republic Bank to see if there were any more money to their names other than what they had salvaged from their home back in Tree Line. Their parents told them years ago that they started to put money in the bank for their children so that in the case of an emergency, the three of them could get enough for some food, clothing, and shelter for a week. A month if they managed to only need the funds for food.

That was almost 8 years ago. When the three of them handed their info to a female teller that also had a White Lotus tattoo, they had found out their parents had divided up all their funds from their own account and put it into the teen's accounts when they were visiting that Northern Water Tribe village earlier. What they found out was quite surprising. Each of them had about 50,000 Yuans. Not a substantial amount but definitely a lot more than nothing. The three even decided to pay Tahno for the fare from the North Pole to Republic City and for the apartment, which was about 1000 Yuans each in the end for all of that.

Tahno, now 3000 Yuans richer, said his farewell to them and told them that members of the White Lotus will begin to start appearing every now and then to check on them and to help make sure that all their training and most importantly, Tal's Avatar training was progressing. Tahno also ordered them that although Avatar Korra was indeed still alive, they should not try and seek her out. She would in time come to them. He left after wishing them luck and advising them never to try and cheat in the Pro-bending ring. Playing dirty was solely reserved for fighting Equalists.

The next week was spent cleaning the apartment until it was feeling more like a home. An occasional run to the nearest market for food was made and the three of them even began to figure out how they were going to dress now that their clothing mainly used for living in the Taiga and on the Tundra was way to warm for wear here in the big city during the summer. Even though they did have money in their names, the three resorted to shopping at thrift stores and finding things in alleyways that could be repaired/cleaned and then used at home.

Tal put his trusty green parka away in exchange for a thinner green sports jacket and a good green t-shirt. He kept wearing his old pair of black water-proof snow jeans but found a nice pair of men's calf-length boots to use instead of his normal snow boots that made him look like he was from the North Pole. He even opted to cut his hair from his longer brown hair to an almost radical top knot like his favorite male war hero that wasn't even a bender, Sokka. He just added a bandana to complete so that he could hide the hair when he need to blend in better. He was very sure that he would acquire more features to his appearance during his time here in the city.

Tai and Tay almost completely ditched their old winter clothes. Tai ended up wearing what had to be considered by teen girls from the fire nation as conservative summer fashion. Meaning Tai did not show any more skin than just her legs and mid-drift. She told him she was trying to dress like how the waterbending master Katara dressed while hiding out in the Fire Nation while traveling with Avatar Aang almost a century earlier. Tay went with made her look like a water tribe girl. She was wearing thinner snow pants, new fur boots and even a small parka. She looked like what Avatar Korra would have looked like if she would have showed more skin. She just made sure she was exposing her mid-drift as well. She was trying to dress like her idol, Avatar Korra, but Tay was going to the extreme.

Tal could only face palm himself when his sister showed him their new clothes. He had went with the idea of a earthbender hiding in plain sight. His twin sisters look like they were trying to draw the attention of every cute teenage boy in the city. "Equalists will be the least of our worries now." he laughed as he shot a much larger air-blast from his left arm at them. "I'm going to have to keep rescuing you two from all the boys you will be attracting." He knew that their parents would have never approved of their twin daughters walking around the city dressed like. But they would most likely have agreed that Tal would protect the girls and keep them out of trouble.

Any free time they had that first week was spent either exploring the nearby sights during the day, but at night, the three of them would take to the rooftops of the neighborhood and practice free running or bending. Tay was now about as good as any water bender who pro-bended these days, and Tai was more than capable firebending and now could generate quite large lightning strikes. She only practiced that however, inside a nearby abandoned factory to avoid drawing any unwanted attention. Tal, being the Avatar, had pretty much already mastered earth bending, and had the hang of metal bending to a small degree. He could fire bend and create lightning just as well now as Tai, and soon was able to send small jets of air from his hands but did not seem to be progressing any further in the air bending category. The only problem he had was that he couldn't water bend for the life of him. He couldn't even make water in a bucket move or even ripple. He had been trying to water bend ever since they were on Tahno's ship.

By the end of their first week in Republic City, the three of them had spent a tenth of their money and still had no way of getting a job to earn a steady income. They visited the arena to try and start up a team right away but they were turned back because they could only submit paper work to request it. It was the off season for another three months so the arena's front offices were very under staffed.

Hope was beginning to fade until one day a letter was lying on their kitchen table after they returned for getting for food from the market. The doors to the apartment had been locked when they had left and there did not appear to be any sign of forced entry. The envelope was sealed with a wax seal with the imprint of the White Lotus. It contained a typed letter on stationary from Future Industries, Republic City's biggest company, and the producer of Satomobiles and other various high tech gadgetry.

_To the three from Tree Line,_

_ Your arrival in this city had been brought to my attention. I too was left without my parents at around you age. I also happen to have similar goals as to you, considering one of you is the "New Avatar". I also have heard from various sources that you three wish to start up a pro bending team. I think that it might be beneficial to both parties if we were to meet and discuss a partnership. Starting a team and running one these days are much harder than in the past. You will need a sponsor, and I would like Future Industries to sponsor a new team now that the company has been brought under a new owner/management. Meet me at Future Industries' main office building in downtown anytime before noon tomorrow so that we may discuss such a partnership._

_Sincerely, _

_A.S._


	8. The Lady of Industry

Chapter 8: The Lady of Industry

It took Tal and his sisters nearly 3 hours to walk across the city from their apartment near the arena to where the tall Future Industries skyscraper was located. They knew they were going to be walking far so they left right after eating breakfast and grabbed some water and snack which Tal carried in a backpack. Four hours of walking would be hell on others feet, but the three teens were better conditioned for the exercise. Besides, the girls wanted to see if there were any cute boys on the way downtown.

Much to Tal's annoyance, every few blocks, a new guy would gain the attention of the girls and sometimes other teen boys would try to flirt or suggest other "ideas" to the sisters. The first time resulted in the guy being sprayed by a puddle on the street even though no Satomobile drove through it. The second guy received a fire blast to his boot and started it on fire. One even got the double dose of justice, both sprayed in the face by a hose and a fire blast to his rear end. The sisters were showing off to their Avatar brother, that they were more than capable of defending themselves. That was good because if they did get a team going , Tal might not be around to all the time to stop the other team from taking out his sisters. Even Avatar Korra wasn't unbeatable in the ring and she too was knock down into the water a few times, leaving only the Ferret Brothers to defend themselves until the next round of the match.

It was around ten in the morning when they reached their destination. They showed the letter to the doorman who ushered them to the receptionist in the lobby. The letter was show again and she pointed them to a bank of elevators and told them to take it to the top floor, and that they were being expected. When the elevator, which gave its riders a terrific view of the city, reached the top, the three of them were then escorted to a waiting room by an awaiting female attendant who was waiting by the elevator for them.

They waited in the small reception room for about ten minutes until the same attendant came throw a large pair of wooden doors and asked for them to enter the owner's office. What they found inside surprised them. Instead of being decorated to the full. it was really sparsely furnished with only a few chairs and one big desk, the only other decorations seen were hundreds of photographs on the wall of different versions of Satomobiles, the previous owner and his family, and a lot of pictures and news clippings about the former Team Avatar with Avatar Korra.

The owner had their chair behind the desk turned around so the three orphans could not see who it was. Only after a few long seconds of silence did the owner speak. It was however not a man, but the chair turned around to reveal a very pretty middle aged woman. "Hello," she said sweetly to them as she got up from her seat and walked around her desk to greet her visitors. "I'm Asami Sato, owner and manager of Future Industries. I was once a member of what everyone around here calls Team Avatar." She shook their hands and eyed each of them, especially Tal. She did what most people would think to be unprofessional and sat right on the front of her massive desk and asked her guest to take their seats.

"I've never thought I'd live to see the day that I would meet the next Avatar but supposedly there you are." She told Tal as he sat nervously in his chair. His sisters just kept their eyes either on him or Asami. "We are completely safe here in my office, but it is the only safe place here in this building so what I'm about to tell you three is not to leave his room." She picked up one of the photos that was displayed on her desk. She did not show it to her guests, she just stared at it for a moment, trying to determine what to say.

She then took the photo over to Tal who was handed it. Tai and Tay got out of their chairs to look over his shoulder at the photo. But the frame did not hold just one photo, but four separate small ones. One was that of the old Team Avatar, an old newspaper clipping from just over 20 years before. Tal easily recognized Korra from his old history classes he had been taught back in school at Tree Line. Also in the picture was a very pretty girl, who he was sure was a much younger Asami, and she did not seem to have aged that badly. The other two people in the first photo were two teenage boys, better known to the world as the Ferret Brothers, Mako and Bolin. Two of the other pictures were what seemed like older versions of the team but with one major addition-children. One was Asami with who appeared to be Bolin and three children. The other was Mako with a girl who looked like she was a water bender. She did not look like Korra at all. Her clothing was much different and her hair was in a different style. Tal looked right at her big beautiful blue eyes and it hit him.

The woman was Korra!

And there were two children in the picture with her and Mako! A son and a younger daughter, and then Tal noticed that Korra was pregnant in the photo as well. Remembering from his schooling that she had three children. The boy, whose name Tal couldn't remember his, was a year or two older than him. The daughter, was about his and his sister's age, He couldn't remember her name either, but he thought that she was very pretty in the photo.

The last picture was a group photo of the old Team Avatar-and their children!

"I can see it in your face Tal," Asami said as she was given back the photo frame. "Three of those pictures were taken 6 years ago. The old team has moved on and gone to start families."

"But I don't get it," Tai said as she went back to her seat. "Wouldn't the Equalists go after the rest of you after they found that Avatar Korra had survived?"

"No they did not," Asami answered. "They sent a broadcast on the radio days after the attack saying that since Korra was presumed dead, the rest of us would have to live the rest of our lives in a state of emptiness without her." She put the frame into a drawer in her desk and locked it. She then took another two frames from the desk and hand one to Tai and the other to Tay. Each photo was a very recent family portrait of Asami and Bolin's family, the other was Korra and Mako's family. "They later also said that even though she was still alive, she was not the Avatar that everyone thought she was." Tal was confused about that detail.

"Have you three seen the large amount of police we have here in the city?" She asked them as now Tal got up to look at the photos his sisters were holding. They nodded yes. "That's because after the attack, both Mako and Bolin joined the city's police department. They used their influence from being friends of Korra into allowing anyone who wish to become a police officer to join, earth bender, other bender or non-bender. Mako is now the Chief of Police for Republic City and Bolin is in charge of the Metal bending police who now served as our special forces unit." The teens stared at Asami when hearing this. "Me, seeing that I am a non-bender, and my husband is the head of the special forces office, I run a company who arms those officers and other things to the public to make sure safety and peace has been restored to the city. Most of our dream has come true. Only a few parts of town are still considered dangerous."

Tal was beginning to get curious. "What about Avatar Korra?" If she was alive, where was she?

Asami was already prepped for that question. "Normally she would be at City Hall trying to keep the council in one piece but today she had off and is at home with her family. Now, seeing that if I'm going to allow Future Industries to sponsor a Pro-bending team consisting of you three, you all are going to have to pass a physical. A physical given by my family's doctor." She pointed a finger at the picture containing Mako and Korra's family. The teens looked at her.

"She is a waterbender and she does wonders with healing."


	9. The Other Avatar

Chapter 9: The Other Avatar

Tal and his sisters were told by Asami to wait outside her office as she made a phone call. They just sat on some chairs in the reception room and smiled at the secretary as she smiled back, but not before holding up an old White Lotus game piece. She too was in on the whole secret, she must have known who the three teens were on their way to see.

Twenty minutes later, Asami stepped outside of her office wearing her traditional driving suit and carrying her favorite helmet in one hand and three extra pairs of goggles in the other. She walked up to them and tossed each a pair of the extra eye wear. "I'm driving." She was going to take them to see Korra.

The ran to the elevator, and after the agonizing slow decent, they ran after Asami as she sprinted to her own personal custom-built Satomobile that just so happened to be parked right outside the front doors to the building. She already had the super charged engine started by the time Tal hopped in to the passenger seat up front and his sisters jumped in the back seat. They were barely able to get their seat belts on when Asami cranked the steering wheel hard and slammed the accelerator pedal. The Satomobile went from a dead stand still to whipping down the open street in only a few short seconds.

Asami seemed to be driving like the streets of downtown Republic City was nothing more than her private race track back at the Sato Mansion. The wind caused from the speed was deafening , and the goggles helped greatly for vision. Asami had to have memorized the traffic patterns because she was never stopped by a red light or even had to slow down due to congestion. Tal saw them blow right by a parked police Satomobile but the officers inside he could have sworn just waved back. They must know who was driving.

She drove the car until they stopped at the arena, only a few blocks away from their apartment but instead of returning there, they all hopped onto the ferry and took it to Air Temple Island. The ferry ride only took ten minutes or so but the only people on board was the pilot and the four passengers. Not many people ever took the ferry ride out to the island. Most of the inhabitants on the island rode sky bison or gliders to get to the city. The pilot told them that this individual ferry's sole job was to transport the Avatar and her family to and from the island. None of them were airbenders so gliders were out of the question and sky bison took too much care in handling. If the Avatar needed to go to someplace far, the city's police provided one of their airships.

When they finally docked, they got off and began to take the steps up to the temple's main courtyard. When climbing what had to be a least a hundred or more steps, Asami had to warn them about the proper etiquette they should use when around Korra and her family. "Remember, be polite. Don't squeal or scream when you see her. She doesn't like the noise and she get gets nervous a lot. And don't use any foul language around here, she has a set of 6 year old twin boys and she doesn't want them to learn any bad words." She was mainly looking at Tal for that last part. He just kept looking ahead and watching his steep, not even breathing hard from all the leg work of climbing the stairs. She thought that it was probably because he was just nervous about meeting someone who was supposed to be one of his past lives...who just so happened to be still alive.

When they reached the courtyard , Korra was standing in the middle of it. Around her was piles of old earth bending discs. "Sorry about the mess, Katara and her friends were practicing for their rookie season of pro-bending. They looked pretty good earlier." She earthbended the scattered discs to drop back in to holes place around the courtyard. Tal finally noticed the pattern in the ground after his foot struck the grating of a open culvert of water. The courtyard was a probending ring.

"So Asami, these are your new pro-bending recruits?" Korra asked with a bit of smile as she walked up the girls and shook their hands gently and then looked at Tal with a bit of a confused look. He returned the look and keep looking at her. Her faced seemed to look a bit different, now she wore makeup. Korra used to never have done such a thing, she hated the idea of it. Her hair was worn in what Tal recognized as how Avatar Aang's friend-turned-wife Katara wore her hair. One very long tail down her back and two traditional "Hair Loops" around her ears. She was wearing a clothing vastly different to what she wore when she was a teenager and now wore a robe that looked like it was from one of the Water Tribes.

"I can tell you Asami, that these three look more than capable of being able to handle themselves in the ring. Katara is sure going to freak out when she finds out that her favorite aunt is sponsoring another team and not just the Fire Ferrets."

"Well," Asami said as she walked up and gave Korra a hug. " I heard what happened at Tree Line and when I got word that these three had survived and wanted to start a team. I couldn't help but try and assist them." She thenreached unto her driving suit and pulled out a small stack of forms. The paper work need to start a team. Korra took then and earthbended a podium for her to write on and too out a pen from pocket in her robe. "I just need to see each of them bend their respected element so that the league knows exactly which one of them can do what. Let's see the water bender first. I have a feeling that the girl that's dressed like my daughter dresses is the one."

Tay walked forward to the center of the office while the rest gave her some room. She took a good stance. With a very light and simple flick if her wrists, she made them the league regulation size in the allowed one second time internal allowed to bend it and shot it straight into the air, but if fell as snowflakes on them as Tay froze the water droplets. Tay was good. Korra wrote on the form and signed it and stamped it with the seal of her medical liscense, handing it to Tay with a nice smile who took it and happily smiled back.

"The fire bender next." She took out another form and watched now as Tai stepped forward, hold out her arms and two large but very well controlled fire balls hovered in her hands. Tai might only be 16, but she was very good if she could control a fire that big. The two twins might be a bit on the small side compared to other female pro-benders, but they more than made up for it in talent. She finished the form and handed it to Tai who then walked back and grabbed the arm of her brother and moved him in to the center of the room.

Tal got an idea. His dad had once told him about how the Equalists had once used shields made of pure medal to protect themselves from attacks by benders. Since that pure medal had no earth in it, metal benders couldn't even affect those shields. His dad then told him that earth benders would combat this by making a shield out of earth and then ramming right into the shield of an equalist.

Tal took a firm stance on the floor and then crouched. The small discs placed in the holes on one side of the ring shot up and then floated in front of him, overlapping to form a shield. Korra had never seen someone try and use the discs as a shield, she wondered if it was even a legal move. She, and the others were too busy watching Tal, they never saw him bend four discs from the other side of the ring quietly move until they were mere inches from the back of Asami, Korra, and the twins. Korra then felt a nudge on her back. She turned around to see the discs ready to slam into her, but it never happened. Tal's shield was not only a good defense against shots from the other teams, it would also for a while keep people's eyes off of what he really was doing. A sneak attack from behind. "Okay boy," she said as went on to write her form. He easily returned all the discs back to their old spots on the ring, and stepped forward to get his form. She however did not give it to him when she was finished with it. She looked up and smiled at him. "Now let's see the rest or are you farther behind in your training than when I was your age."

She wanted to see him bend the other elements.


	10. Questions and Answers

**Well, here is another chapter. Things should start to get more interesting soon, I promise!**

**This chapter is going to mostly explain how Korra is still alive. I hope it is to everyone's liking.**

* * *

Chapter 10: Questions and Answers

"Now let's see the rest or are you farther behind in your training than when I was your age." Was what Tal heard. In an almost exact copy of how Tai fire bended, Tal held out his arms and two good-sized flames sprouted from his hands. The flames were still smaller than Tai's flames were but he was straining to make them bigger. He did however have flames that were much more intensely burning and were much hotter. Everyone else had to shield their eyes from the heat.

Korra smiled at him knowing why he had stopped. "Don't worry about starting any fires around here. My husband uses this place to vent off a little steam when he gets angry. Just last week he had a fit because he found out that our daughter was going on a date." She gave out a laugh at remembering that incident. She returned her attention to Tal as he just stood there with his arms folded across his chest. He could fire bend somewhat, but his sister was still ahead of him in that department. At least he made up for the lack of training by creating a mini inferno in his hands. Not many fire benders could get their flames that hot. "Anything else you would like for me to see Tal?"

He obliged her request by sending two small gusts of air from his hands right at her. It really did was move her hair like in a breeze, it didn't even push her back at bit. The gusts were still small, but Tal thought they were getting bigger since the previous times he had tried air bending. The airbending seemed to have surprised her a bit though, she wasn't able to air bend until her late teens. She was said to be too connected to the physical side of bending and had completely ignored the spiritual side of it. When she was a little girl down at the South Pole, she had the ability to water/fire/earth-bend almost effortlessly. Some had said that this was rare even in the case of the Avatar. She asked him, "Can you also waterbend?"

She saw him assume the correct stance to bend, and he moved his arms in all the right motions. He was trying to replicate what Tay had done earlier with the water in the culvert. But the water did not move at all, not even a shake or a ripple. He was straining at just trying to make the water move, even just a little. It was just like her when she was trying to learn airbending, just that now it was him trying to get waterbending.

Then something hit her in the back of her memory, Tenzin. Aang's airbending son. He helped her get a hold of airbending. He had passed on a few years ago and now his children were in charge of resurrecting the culture and also the blood line of the Air Nomads who were nearly made extinct by the Fire Nation during the Hundred Year War. She saw that this meant that she would have to teach the boy everything that she knew about waterbending, and help him master fire, and air as well. He seemed like he could already do almost anything with earthbending.

She walked over to him and shake his hand to formally recognize him as the Avatar, or a Avatar. Somehow, when their hands touched, that caused a flashback. Korra watched as Tal's eyes flashed for a second and then passed out right on the spot and fell down on his back. Everyone else rushed over to see what had happened.

It was the night she was almost killed by that assassin. The bullet pierced her left lung and she was bleeding a lot . Tenzin flew her and the rest of the team on Oogi, Tenzin's sky bison, back to Air Temple Island. Asami, due to her training, quickly stopped the bleeding. Korra was told by Mako later that after they had landed and rushed her to the island's infirmary, she went into shock due to the loss of too much blood and her pulse dropped to near death levels.

Tenzin had to resort to airbending to keep her lungs full while the Air Acolytes tried to stitch her wound. Bolin, who was the only one who shared the same blood type as Korra, give her a transfusion of his own blood to help her body replenish her dwindling reserves. Asami, was monitoring her pulse via Korra's wrist alerted them that it was getting weaker and weaker.

Then her pulse stopped.

Mako was lost during all of this. He could only stay back and watch as everyone else tried to help Korra, and he couldn't. He had no medical training like Asami or Lin. He did not have the same blood type like Bolin so he could help give blood to Korra. He couldn't airbend to keep her lungs supplied with air. He was a firebender, and he was useless.

His anger began to get a hold of him. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see his friend/love die in such a way. Then his hands began to tingle, he was creating sparks and lightning. He rushed out the window and released a large lightning bolt. It arced across the sky and momentary turned day into night.

Then he heard Asami scream that Korra was not responding. Her heart had stopped beating. Korra was dead. Then something weird happened, he heard some voice. It was of an old man. Actually, it sounded like that Aang guy Korra kept talking about and had named her first son Aang.

"Use the lightning! It can restart her heart!"

Make rushed over to the bed Korra was laying on and yelled for everyone to step aside. He made a much smaller lightning from in his hand and then zapped Korra's chest. Asami rechecked Korra's pulse but didn't get one. Mako tried again, only more power and right on her heart. Asami went again to check for a pulse and looked at Mako with wonder.

Korra's pulse was back. It was back after 90 seconds of her technically being dead.

One of the Acolytes put her ear to Korra's chest. "Her heart is beating!" She checked again and informed everyone that the beating was getting stronger.

Bolin, kept by her side for a while longer and continued to offer his blood to her until he had to be disconnected and taken to another bed to rest from his offering. Tenzin went to give the news to his children that Korra might be okay. Asami kept checking Korra's pulse every few minutes, and it was indeed beginning to rise to a safer level. Mako even saw her begin to breathe deeper and he could see her chest begin to raise and fall at a safe pace. She was still unconscious for what seemed like a day or two but then she woke up in the middle of the night to see Mako laying in a chair next to her bed fast asleep. Her stirring somehow managed to wake him up.

"Korra!" Mako yelled as she flew out of the chair and rushed to her bedside. "Spirits! We thought we had lost you!" She couldn't see very well at the time but she later vaguely remembered him beginning to tear up as he just stood there and looked at her. She was able to roll her head from side to side but winced in pain as she tried to move in her bed.

"Try not to move Korra," Mako asked her as he took her hand and held it. "You were stabbed by an Equalist. We rushed you back to the island. You flat-lined on us and we had just about given up hope when some voice told me to restart you heart with lightning." He saw Korra's big beautiful blue eyes widen in surprise to such news.

She tried to speak but her throat was too sore to let her talk. Mako helped her drink some water before he told her he was going to get everyone else. She didn't want him to leave her alone but she knew that it was important for everyone to know that she had woken up. Mako return minutes later with his and Korra's firstborn son Aang in his arms. "See Aang," Mako said to the boy as he show him to his mother. "Mommy is going to be okay." The others began to enter the room as well only minutes later.

Asami, and Tenzin's two daughters Jinora and Ikki were the first to arrive. Bolin, who was able regain his strength from his donation of blood only hours earlier, rolled himself into the room in a wheelchair. Korra had no clue as to what had happened to him until he pointed to his and her arms. Tenzin, his wife Pema and their two sons Meelo and Rohan were the last to arrive. All Korra could do was lay there as everyone kept trying to tell here their version of what happened and how scared they were of almost losing her and how she was going to be better soon...

Tal was awaken from this little unofficial history lesson by a water jet to the face from Tay. He found himself on the ground and everyone was surrounding him. The first thing he saw after regaining consciousness was Korra's face. She was checking his pulse. And told Tay that she over did it on the water but it did work to get Tal back into the real world.

"What happened," he said as he rubbed his head and sat up . "Did anyone get the license plate of that Satomobile?"

"You passed out." Korra said , "Did you have a vision or flashback as well?"

"Yep, it was when you were stabbed and how Mako and everyone else saved you."

"Then this confirms it," Korra said as she walked over to Asami. "Tal here is the new Avatar. The power of the Avatar was released from my responsibility when my heart stopped for that short time. But the transfer was not completed because Mako brought me back. That is why I have only been able to waterbend since that day and that may also prove why he can't waterbend at all, because I still have that part of the Avatar's power with me."

* * *

**Well, there you go, how I try to explain how she is still alive. I also helped out that MakoXKorra camp out by pairing the two of them up and already with a kid. That should draw lots of readers to this. You will see that kid, and his siblings later on in the story.**

**Also, yet another very sincere thankyou to those who have been reading and favoriting this story. I also would like to thank those who leave reviews, I would like to here more feed back about my writing style and everyone's response to my writing. More chapters are going to be posted very soon.**


	11. Avatar Aang Speaks

**Sorry folk but this is going to be a long chapter, over 2000 words!**

**But as you can see from the title, our characters will finally meet Avatar Aang!**

* * *

Chapter 11: Avatar Aang Speaks

Now Tal thought he was losing it. In the span of 2 months, he had gained the ability to firebend, sent off to live at the North Pole while his parents and town get massacred by Equalists, he finds out he can airbend too, along with his earthbending. He and his sisters moved to Republic City, live in an apartment owned by a member of a mysterious organization, they meet the wealthiest woman in the city who then takes them to meet Avatar Korra. He meets her and when they shook hands, he falls into some kind of trance and lives, or is it relives the night that Korra almost died. He wakes up to her saying that he is indeed the next Avatar but he might not be able to waterbend because she is still alive.

He had to be going insane. He was probably having some crazy wild dream about his future and when he wakes up from it, he would be in his bed, safe at home with his family and it would be his seventeenth birthday. It couldn't be real, it just couldn't. How can there be two Avatars alive at the same time? He pinched the back of his arm and winced in the pain, he had to be dreaming and the pain would wake him up.

Nope, it was not a dream. He was on Air Temple Island in the middle of Yue Bay in Republic City. He had just met Avatar Korra and he had bended 3 separate elements and he had just had a vision about how she had survived being stabbed almost 20 years earlier. A woman's voice spoke, "Tal are you okay? You just pinched yourself. You think this is just a dream?" He was awake and sitting in the middle of the courtyard while the rest just watched him.

He suddenly found himself getting pulled up off the ground and placed on his feet. He turned around to find that Korra had single handedly lifted him. She was slightly shorter than him and had to weigh less than him, and she lifted him. "Yes Tal, I'm a lot stronger than I look." the voice said. It was definitely Korra. "I might be nearly forty but I can still handle myself quite fine thank you."

"Did you just say a moment ago that I'm really the next Avatar?" Tal asked as he regained his composure and brushed the dust off his clothes. "How can there be two Avatars? The can only be one."

"I think that we might be able to get the answers if we contact one our old friends Tal." Korra said as she took him by the arm and was leading him into the temple. "Asami, I think I'm wondering if you would like you and your family to have dinner with us here tonight." Asami got the clue and waved goodbye as she left to get back to the pier to take the ferry back to the mainland. Korra then turned her attention to the two twin girls. "As for you two, me and your brother are going to be meditating until dinner so I think that you two should go and explore the island. You will probably run into my family sooner or later." They waved farewell too and went off to explore. She took Tal to a gazebo on a cliff, overlooking the city and motioned for him to sit on the floor as she took her own seat directly in front of him and a few feet away. "Have you ever meditated before Tal?" He answered with a no, he did not say anything, he just shook his head.

"Well then, all you need to do is close your eyes and concentrate on one thing," she told him as she closed her eyes and began to breathe slowly and in sync. "And that one thing I want you to concentrate on is-talking to Avatar Aang."

"Aang? The Avatar before you? Why?" Tal asked, he only saw the back of his eyelids or just darkness.

"I have a funny feeling that he is going to be able to tell us what is going on here. You should be able to contact him in the Spirit World considering you are an Avatar too just like me so we are just going to pay him a visit."

"When do I know if I'm in the Spirit World?" Still only darkness.

"Oh don't worry Tal, you will know". She laughed at her own remark.

While their brother was busy being bored to death with meditation, Tai and Tay were too busy enjoying the sights of the island. They first went to the main building and were only inside for a few seconds before being pounced upon by two adorable twin 6 year old boys. They reminded the girls of themselves when they were younger. One boy had black hair and amber eyes and the other had black hair and blue eyes. One was dressed like he was from the Fire Nation, and the other was dressed like he was from one of the Water Tribes. Exactly the same like Tai and Tay. Then they remembered that Korra said that these were her and Chief Mako's youngest children.

"Hi," the boy with amber eyes said as he held out his hand to shake the girls' hands. "I'm Zuko."

"Hi," the boy with blues eyes said as he copied his brother. "I'm Sokka."

Then the two worked their twin magic and said together, "Who are you, and what are you doing go our island?"

"The girls pulled their own twin trick too. "We are Tai and Tay and our brother is the Avatar."

"No way!" Zuko screamed, "Our mom is the Avatar!"

"And our brother just so happens to be a Avatar too." Tai said as she knelt down to be at eye level with Zuko. "You two are so adorable." She put her hand on top of Zuko's mop of hair and messed up his hair. He looked like a little version of Fire Lord Zuko when he was a young boy. Tay was doing the same with Sokka who was sport a haircut like his namesake and was also used by Tal. The good old standby of the warrior top-knot.

"You two want to see the island?" Sokka asked.

"Yes," the girls said at once, and they were soon being taken all over the island and the boys told them all they knew about the place. In a very excited and energy filled manner. But the girls didn't mind that, they were too in awe with the place to notice.

As for the meditation with Tal. He had had better days relaxing when he was being chased by polar bear dogs on the tundra miles outside of town back home in Tree Line. Just thinking about talking to a guy who had been dead for about 40 years. That had to be stupid, but he kept thinking about it. It was soon when he thought he had dosed off and opened his eyes. However, he wasn't in the real world, when he opened them, he was seated at the corner of a triangle which was made up of him, Korra, and a old Airbender male which Tal immediately recognized as Avatar Aang.

"Well, good afternoon sleepy head. It's about time you opened your eyes. It's been 4 hours in the real world and you finally managed to connect to the Spirit World." Korra said as she saw that his eyes had opened. The three of them seemed to be in the middle of what Tal thought was the temple which housed those statues of all the past Avatar's. "Tal, this is Aang." she pointed to Aang as he smiled and waved hello like his spirited self. "Aang, this is Tal. Supposedly, he was made an Avatar after that one time I nearly died from that stabbing a long time ago." She was doing some kind of motion with her arms and Tal thought she was trying to do some traditional Water Tribe dance. She was just very confused. Did she do stuff like that when she was trying to get a point across?

"Aang," she asked the old man. "Why is there a earthbending Avatar here with us when I'm still alive and not dead yet? I didn't die! How did our spirits get reincarnated into him if I'm still alive!"

Aang must have been practicing for this question for a long time because he looked pretty calm when he gave his answer. "Tal is here Korra because you need help with keeping the balance in the real world. While I was still alive, the world's populated had to have nearly doubled. With all this new technology, more food available, and nearly 70 years of peace, many more people were born."

"When you first arrived in Republic City, you were stuck having to keep the peace there and could not go around the rest of the world to help other nations with their issues. Myself, and the other past Avatars decided that the world was just too big now to be helped by only one Avatar. So when you nearly died, we used that time to copy your power as the Avatar and reincarnate it in Tal here who was born later."

Aang was looking quite content with his answer as Korra just continued to stare at him and then at Tal and then back at him. Aang then continued with his explanation, "After you train him to master the four elements, he can go out and help outside Republic City and you can stay in the city and help it while you look after your family."

Korra was looking a little surprised, "You mean that Tal here is my help with all the crud going on outside the capital? But Aang, he can't waterbend at all!" She gave Tal a look of I'm-sorry-about-that-last-comment look. She was definitely proud of her natural element and quite mad that Tal couldn't even move water.

"Don't worry Korra" Aang said as she stood up and walked over to Tal and pulled him upon his feet and Aang placed his hand on Tal's head. "I just need to give his spirit a little boost for him to pass that block in his chi and he will be bending your natural element in no time. Remember, you might have mastered three elements easily before you went to Republic City, but you never could even get a little breeze to shot out of your hand." Korra was blushing at that comment. "You were very impatient when you were younger Korra."

Now Korra was getting stumped, she too stood up, "What's going to happen Aang, if one of us gets hurt or killed? I nearly died all the way back then and Tal's hometown was just destroyed because the Equalists thought that there were too many benders in the town. They don't just want to get rid of people's bending anymore Aang, they want to kill all benders and any non-bender that gets in their way!"

"Relax Korra!" Aang shouted at her which made her flinch and take a step back. "Everything will be okay since there is now two Avatar's in the real world. Personally Korra , I don't see you dying until you are an old woman like my love Katara was and when you do, another Avatar will be born in the Fire Nation and Tal will train then that one. Hopefully when that day comes, he will be an old man and can stay in the Capital while the next Avatar goes off into the world solving all new issues. The cycle will still exist, there will just be now two Avatars alive at the same time."

He turned back to face Tal. "As for you Tal, you have a dark spot in your spirit. Your are vengeful and want to make those who killed your parents and destroyed your home pay in pain and blood. That is a road that the Avatar cannot take. You must never purposely kill anyone or your powers will turn you into a killing monster that will have to be silenced." He looked at him right in the eyes. "Luckily, I know the answer to that issue, find something to believe in and everything will turn out fine."

"Like what Aang?" Korra asked as he began to walk away from and disappeared into the darkness.

"Oh don't worry about that," his voice echoed, "You two will figure it out soon enough."

* * *

**No the plot thickens. I hope that this will keep the favoriting and the reviews coming in.**

**I don't want to be a jerk and say that I'll only keep adding chapters if I get a certain numbers of people following this story or a high number of positive reviews. But please keep sending in reviews, I do actually response to some. That's one of the reasons I re-edited some of the earlier chapters.**

**So, Please leave more reviews and keep up loving this story!**


	12. Korra's Family

**Hope you all like this next chapter. I'm finally introducing a whole bunch of new characters.**

**A lot of them have familiar names, so I'm trying very hard to make sure that readers can tell who is who.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Korra's Family

Tal was then suddenly awoken for real this time. He and Korra were still in the gazebo, but they were both now standing. They had started meditating sitting down, and now somehow, they were both standing. When that had begun, it was around lunchtime, now the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. "Come on Tal", she said as she began to walk to the main building, you look like you need something to eat. And I would love to introduce you and your sisters to my family." He smiled and followed as they began to walk from the meditation gazebo to the main building for dinner.

Tai and Tai felt as if everyone at the large dining table was looking at them. There had to be at least thirty sets of eyes glancing at them everyone now and then or outright staring at them. They kept a quite whispering talk between them, wondering how their brother was holding up to the torture of meditation. It was easy to whisper as everyone else seemed to be talking louder than them. The meal had still not been served as the Air Acolytes who also lived on the island were still in the kitchen helping to finish cooking it. They were seated at one of the table's corners and on one side of them was Korra's twin sons trying to act like gentlemen and introduce "their dates" to the family members seated nearby. The other two spots on the other side of them were open and they concluded that they were reserved for Tal and Korra. One was one the corner and the other was at the end of the table.

Sitting next to the empty corner seat was a man who seemed to be smiling at himself as he just sat in silence there wearing his trademark police chief suit of metal with a old red scarf his has almost always worn since the day his parents were killed when he was little. Tai and Tay were positive that this man was Korra's husband, Chief Mako. Sitting next to him was a what the girls though was a very cute twenty year old boy who wore a police uniform like the man sitting next to him, but his rank was that of a lieutenant. This guy, they were sure was Korra's eldest child and oldest son, Aang. He must be a firebender because his eyes were amber and looked like what Mako must have looked like when he was that age.

Next to Aang was a girl who was dressed like Tay was in Water Tribe attire. They knew that this was Katara, Korra's only daughter. She was a year older than them but she smiled and waved like the three girls were already best friends. Sitting next to Katara was a boy who about the same age as here who looked like he could lift a car, but the smile he had made him also look like he wouldn't hurt a fly. He looked like he was a earthbender, because then man sitting to him was the great former pro-bender Bolin, the teen boy's father. Next to Bolin was Asami who looked quite content to keep the secret about the whole get together until the everyone was here.

On Asami's other side were two other children, a boy who looked to be slightly younger than Tai and Tay and a even younger girl. Both of these children looked like younger versions of Asami and Bolin but the two of them seemed to be discussing a drawing of some kind of contraption. These two, Tay told her sister must be non-benders. The rest of those seat at the table were a group of airbenders of various ages from a young boy and girl to the middle aged woman who seemed to be in charge of the whole group of airbenders.

Tai and Tay both tried to gain another look around the table until they saw that Aang and Bolin's son were looking right at them. That made the twin girls look away and blush. A few more minutes of talking occurred until Korra stepped through a door behind the end of the table. She kept is slightly open but Tal had not stepped though. Obviously, Korra was going to try and explain what the heck was going on to those seated before introducing Tal.

"Sorry to bring everyone here on such short notice but I have a few announcements to make that I think all of you are going to need to know. " Korra started as she stood there, all lady-like and refined. "As all of have noticed, we have some guests here with us tonight. This is Tai and Tay, they are from the town of Tree Line in the Earth Kingdom that I'm sure almost all of you have heard was destroyed by Equalists a few weeks ago. They and their brother are right now the only known survivors." There were a few murmurs.

"The three of them were up at the North Pole on a trip when they returned to find everyone in the town had been taken to the wood and killed, and then had their bodies burned." This statement caused a few gasps. "Their parents were Equalists who switched to our side after they found out their children were benders. They managed to hitch a ride on Tahno's ship to the city and live near the arena and the three of them are going be sponsored by Asami's company, and yes Katara, the Fire Ferrets are still going to be sponsored as well." The teen girl Katara looked as if she was about to protest such a call but kept quite. "But there is still more. Tal is outside this room because he is someone I thought I would never have to meet until I was dead and part of the Spirit World. You see, Tal here is the newest Avatar."

Now everyone was gasping or talking. "How can that be mom?" Aang said as he stood up and faced her. "There can only be one Avatar on the Earth at one time and you are the current Avatar."

Mako grabbed his son and pulled him back down to his seat. "Boy, your mother I'm sure has the answer as to why there are two Avatars on this island." This made Aang's face turn red from embarrasment.

"Well I can answer that too Aang," Korra said to her son as she continued to block everyone's view of the door to the hallway where Tal was waiting to be called in. "While everyone else here was getting over to the island for our eventual meal, Tal and I went to meditate and we got the answers we needed straight from my predecessor, Avatar Aang."

"What did Grandpa Aang tell you Korra?" The middle aged airbender woman asked.

"Well Jinora, your grandfather said that ever since the time I was born, the world's population had increased dramatically. He and the other past Avatars decided that when I nearly died that one night all those years ago. They copied my powers and gave them to Tal when he was born later. Aang said it was done so that there can be a Avatar here in Republic City to help deal with issues here in the capital. The other Avatar, the younger Avatar, can travel around the world and help the rest of the people. Tal is pretty much my backup for dealing with all the issues going on now here in our world."

Everyone seemed to have understood the explanation, so Korra finally got to the good part. "Well, now that that's all over with. I would like to introduce you all to Avatar Tal." Korra stepped aside and Tal took this as his cue. Very nervously he opened the door all the way and walked into the room.

"Hi everyone." He said as he waved to them nervously. "Nice to meet you all." There was a few seconds of silence until all the airbending children seemed to have flown from the far end of the table and suddenly group hug him.

"Great grandpa Aang!" The five of them screamed as the weight of all of them and the sudden impact of their hug made Tal fall over onto his back, nearly knocking the breath out of him.

"Well this is weird," he said as she tried to resist the children's hug. But they kept their hold tight. "I'm still a teenager and somehow I'm being hugged by five airbender children and I've just been called a great grandfather."

* * *

**Well, there you go. Another chapter down in the story. I hope that it is still very exciting still.**

**Many more action chapters, romance chapters, pro-bending match chapters, and dark chapters as well, will be coming up if the favoriting keeps up and if people keep sending in positive reviews.**

**Also, If anyone here is an artist who happens to have a deviantart account. You are more than welcome to test out your artisitc abilities and try to come up with concept sketches of how everyone in the story looks like. My deviant ID is the same as my fanfiction ID. **

**Thankyou to all who love this story and Favorite it!**

**And please keep leaving me reviews, I'm begging for feedback. You can even post ideas if you want to. I will try very had to reply to all of them if I can.**


	13. A LoveHate Rivalry

**Well, here is a new chapter. Hope everyone like its. It took a couple of days to get this all figured out. **

**Now I have set my main ship for this story. TalxKatara.**

**Also, another thankyou to those who are following this story. Without you, I would have stopped this a long time ago.**

**Also for a disclaimer: I don't own the show, so only the characters I created are mine and those created for the show are theirs.**

* * *

Chapter 13: A Love/Hate Rivalry

"Well this is weird," he said as she tried to resist the children's hug. But they kept their hold tight. "I'm still a teenager and somehow I'm being hugged by five airbender children and I've just been called a great grandfather."

"Don't worry about that Tal," Korra said as she took her seat next to Mako at the corner of the table. "I seems that from now on, all airbenders in history by blood will be descendants from Avatar Aang. So I'm not going to be surprised if every Avatar from now on after us get called jokingly great grandpa or possibly great grandma to the whatever mathematical power by all airbenders. They did that to me once already last year after Jinora told them that a little of his spirit would be in all Avatars after him, including me." Soon the children had their fair share of a hug and return to their seats and Tal could finally sit down. He was kind of nervous because he was at the end of the table, a position of power, and he had a lot of people staring at him.

The dinner was served and everyone began to eat. The food consisted of a fully vegetarian diet for the airbenders because of their spiritual practices, and a meal containing grains and meat for the rest. Tal and his sisters tried not to show their lack of table manners as they tried to fill their stomachs. They hadn't eaten since breakfast. Ever since the massacre, every time they ate at their apartment, they let their manners fly out the window. Tonight they were guests of Korra and her family, so the manners had to be used again. After the main meal was eaten, then Tal began to get questions thrown at him, from Mako. "So you and your sisters' parents were formal Equalists, huh?"

"Yes sir, but they taught us to never us our bending in public and to make everyone in the town think we were nonbenders. They did it so we were safe when Equalist leaders would come into town."

"I bet those Equalist fools never had though that an Avatar would be born to parents who hated benders. They teach you how to chi-block and use those weapons of theirs too?"

"Yes sir, we even picked up a little on how to be expert climbers from spending our summers climbing the large pine trees in the taiga forest. And while we were at the north pole, we learned from some of the children how to do free-running. Me and my sisters use those skills sometimes to get around the neighborhood quickly by rooftops." That last little bit of info made the man's eyebrows perk up ever so slightly.

"Benders, chi-blockers, weapons experts, skilled climbers, free runners, and one of them is an Avatar! Ha!" Mako laughed as he turned to his daughter Katara. "Katara sweetie, you, Hiroshi, and that firebending boyfriend of yours better not get to confident in the ring, these three might just be able to beat the Fire Ferrets."

"Dad!" Katara said as she was beginning to look a little mad. "I think that Ru-who is not my boyfriend, Hiroshi and I can easily take on those three! Remember, even with the new rule changes, if an Avatar is to compete, they can only use their natural element."Her voice calmed down but she still looked like she was going to try and rip Tal's heart through his chest and eat it. "We've been practicing almost every day since the end of the last season to get Ru up to speed on the skills needed because Aang had to retire. Besides, we're reigning runner-ups, we barely ever lose." She was looking right at the three orphans. "And mom, shouldn't he be too busy training with you to be an Avatar then spending all day practicing probending or running on rooftops in downtown?" Tal shot her a look of him pretending to stab himself in the heart. This girls was a feisty one. Of course, he knew better than to anger the daughter of an Avatar much anymore. He thought that she looked really cute when mad.

"Katara," Asami said as she was finishing her cup of tea that was being serve to them now. "I watched those three bend this morning out in the courtyard. They might be rookies but believe me, they are going to be a tough team to beat. That's why I decided to sponsor both the Fire Ferrets and the Tree Line Three."

"The Tree Line Three?" Tal, Tai and Tay asked in unison.

"You three need a team name if you're going to be joining the league," Asami laughed. "Usually most teams will have an animal for a mascot but since there is little to no wildlife up there where you lived, I changed it up a bit. I think it make you sound all mysterious and no one truly has ever even heard of that town until the Equalists attacked."

She took another sip of tea. "Besides, both teams will be in separate divisions, the Fire Ferrets in the City Division with the almost two dozen other teams who are from Republic City. And the Tree Line Three will be in the World Division, with two dozen other team who are not from the capital."

"So Aunt Asami," Katara said as she finally went back to being her normal happy self. "We would only face each other in friendly matches or in the championship?" She threw a quick glance at Tal to see how he would react. He just sat there and didn't bulge. Not even a blink. Katara knew that the teams from outside the city had a vast amount of talent. One team represented each of the large villages and cities. They would be the best benders from surrounding area.

Then there were the teams that found a way to get sponsored for a season and take up a spot in the division to keep the numbers even at thirty. These were the "Wild Cards" as they were called. The unpredictable teams. Teams they had no prior knowledge of their skills. New teams could spell down for teams who had spent numerous seasons in the league. Katara knew personally just how dangerous they could be. The Fire Ferrets were nearly knocked out of the tournament last season to a wild card team that managed to buy a spot in the City Division. Her Aunt had clearly used her wealth to secure them a spot. The chances that the town of Tree Line would have ever sent a team to the arena was slim to none without a considerable amount of Yuans being spent to get them into the league.

The first matches of the year in two months were going to be friendly matches pitting teams from the city against the rest of the world. Katara knew that the three orphaned teens from Tree Line were going to be a tough team to beat. And she had this bad feeling that the Fire Ferrets were going to be matched against the Tree Line Three. She looked over at Tal who she found out was looking right at her. He was smirking at her. Clearly he knew what she was thinking. She had to admit to herself that his smirk was quite cute.

Katara's cousin Hiroshi, she found out was not having a hard time digesting all the info he had just been told during this whole time. There were two Avatars in the room. A town was massacred by Equalists. Katara still did not like having Ru called her boyfriend. His mother was sponsoring two teams, and the other team was most likely better than them. They would most likely going to have to compete against them, and the other team's captain was an Avatar and a earthbender like him.

But the main thought that kept going through his head was how cute both of Tal's sisters were. He wasn't paying attention to Katara sitting next to him trying tell him something. He didn't even know she was talking to him until she punched him hard in the arm. "Are you listening to me Hiro?" she said as he yelped in pain and began rubbing his sore arm.

"Not really," he truthfully answered. "I was kind of trying to think about what might be for dessert." That last part was a lie, but she took the bait. He couldn't let her know that he was eyeing Tal's sisters, their new rival team.

"Well now that I got your attention," she said. " We are going to have to practice now at your place now because they will be using the practice ring here on the island. And I think that we need to step up the level of training. We should try and see what Ru thinks of practicing twice a day."

"I don't think his parents are going to like that Katara." Hiroshi said as a dessert plate with a slice of pie was place in front of him by one of the Air Acolytes. "Ru needs to the time to help with them running that little tea shop chain his parents own. Besides , I don't feel like having to spend most of my day practicing when mom keeps telling me that I need to get out and around town. She doesn't like me only leaving our mansion to come here and practice."

Hiroshi had to get close to her and whisper into her ear. He did not want the newcomers knowing about this. "She told me that my dad thinks that I should be spending more time chasing girls than just staying at home and helping my sibling with their wild inventions. He thinks that me with a girlfriend is less dangerous to my health that having those two make me their test subject for new inventions." He saw her look at him like he was an idiot. "Hey, remember when those two invented that thing that could make anyone spry fire like a firebender. What did they call that thing again...the flame thrower. Well that cost me my eyebrows and you know how bad I look without eyebrows."

Katara remembered that incident and decided that he was probably right. She whispered back in his ear. "Fine, we'll stay with one practice a day in the morning. But promise me that you won't bring those two over there to any of our practices. You can try to use that charm of yours on them, and can date one of them if Tal doesn't kill you first. But we still can having them around to the opportunity to get a leg up on our strategies."

She looked at Tai and Tay, they seemed to have know what Hiroshi was thinking and waving at him while he was eating his pie and they giggled when he was too busy watching them to have a piece miss his mouth and instead land on his shirt. They made the twins giggle even harder, even Tal had to chuckle a bit.

So Hiroshi was going to try and get to know either Tai or Tay, maybe if she could get Ru to get with the other then her dad with stop think that his daughter was dating some bender who was probably only trying to get in bed with the daughter of an Avatar. She was sure he was certainly not trying to do that, he just needed the money so he could more out on his own and not have to be stuck working for his parents. She only went on one date with Ru. He only took her out to dinner to thank her for letting him join the team for this next season after her brother had to retire from the league because he was with the police now.

She thought about what her father would think if she went on a date with Tal. The first thing however, was how she was going to get him to ask her out.

* * *

**Well there you have it, I got Korra and Mako's daughter starting a cruch on my main character.**

**Other than that, now I got to figure out how thicken this plot soon or I'm going to go insane.**

**And yet again, thankyou to those who favorite or follow this story.**

**And please leave reviews or at least tell your fellow readers to try and read this too to see if they might like it.**


	14. The Challenge

**Here is another chapter, they are going to be getting a little longer now. Not too long though I hope.**

**Now things are going to start to get interesting.**

* * *

Chapter 14: The Challenge

The dinner finally ended after the dessert. Everyone was introducing themselves to the Tree Line Three, as they were now called. Katara's fears of them spying on the Fire Ferrets were lessened after her Aunt agreed that it would be more practical for them to practice at the Sato mansion in the practice ring she had made in her father's old secret workshop he had used to make weapons for the Equalists before he was captured and sentenced to life in prison. Katara was the only one who did not live on the mainland, but she was more than happy to suffer the half hour commute if it meant that her teams new rivals could not spy on them.

Tal, Tai, and Tay would unfortunately have to suffer the daily morning ferry ride to the island to practice there and then after lunch with Korra's family and the Airbenders, Tal would be taught how to master each of the elements solely from Korra. She would offer her help with earthbending in the morning because he would only be allowed to use it during matches. The rest would be taught later in the day. Tai and Tay would have their afternoons free to go back to their apartment and wait for Tal to return.

When all the planning and greeting had concluded, they took the ferry back to the city with those who did not live on the island and they walked back home to their little apartment. Each of the were exhausted, and it was late so all of them just went into their separate bedrooms and just went to bed. They would need the rest because they would have to get up early to eat breakfast and let it all digest while taking the ferry back to the island.

The next morning, they arrived to find that Korra had managed to get them some old practice uniforms to wear. They had seen better days and were clearly hand-me-downs from the Fire Ferrets who Tal suspected now used much newer uniforms at their new practice ring under the Sato Mansion. The old uniforms were the classic trademark white and red of the Fire Ferrets. Korra did tell them that Asami was getting them new uniforms both for practice and matches with white, green, brown, and black.

Tai and Tay each put on an old set of Katara's gear, one just her match set and the other got the practice set. Tal tried to fit into Aang's or Hiroshi's old gear but both of them were still too big, Tal was as tall as Aang but Aang was still bigger in the chest and arms than him. It took a lot of tugging and pulling to finally manage to move comfortably in them but he still looked like the clothes were trying to swallow him.

Korra fixed this issue by making the girls spar with each other while she made trained Tal , no dressed in his usually attire, to be lighter on his feet. He was soon able to throw multiple discs with only the balls of his feet touching the ground for only a second or so. Korra was quite impressed with his skill. By lunch, on the third day of practice, he could even rapidly change the trajectory of the discs he bended.

The new uniforms were delivered personally be Asami by the end of the first week or training. The Fire Ferrets even tagged along to see how their rivals looked in their new threads. He returned from the male dormitory in his new uniform and was quite happy with the whole color scheme and decoration of the outfit. Asami not only was a terrific driver, she was definitely a master of fashion as well.

The uniforms for the Tree Line Three were black pants with brown knee-high boots, and green tops with white above the chest and for the arms. Various patches denoting his name, the Future Industries logo of a gear, the symbol for earthbending, and a logo of a group of pine trees next to a large snowflake-the team logo the three teens created to represent the now dead town of Tree Line. In a circle around the trees and the snowflake were the words-_May Our Deaths Be Not In Vain, But Be For Eternal Peace_. A touching memorial to those who were killed when the Equalists attacked.

Tai and Tay came out of the girls dormitory only to have both Hiroshi and Ru send whistles and cat-calls at them. Both the girls seemed to enjoy it, they even blew kisses to their admirers, who just so happen to be members of their rival team. Tal only seemed to get a little smile from Katara who sent a jet of water right at him after he flexed his arms jokingly at her, trying to get her to blush.

Soon enough, the training days went from being more bending based workouts to more physical conditioning workouts. The girls were easily handling the part where they would have to jog laps around the island's 800 meter perimeter but were having trouble having to do max sets of pull ups after each lap. Tal was a slightly slower runner, but he made up for it in the pull up part, easily doing double what his sisters could do each lap, he even could jog more laps than them.

Korra during all of this, was either on the sideline giving advice, meditating while they ran, or completely absent because she had to be at City Hall to be part of the council because she was-to most of the world-the only Avatar alive at the moment. In the afternoons, the twins usually stayed and watched their brother being taught how to master earthbending in the first two weeks. Then Korra taught him and Tai firebending. If Korra was going to be busy that day with the council, the Tal would either have to meditate or run more lap and do more pull ups, and even more exercises. Soon, that new uniform of his was beginning to get tighter on him as he could have sworn he had gained at least ten pounds of muscle. One of the Air Acolytes was more than happy to tailor the suit to fit him better.

By the end of the first month, Tal was beginning to get sick of having to sometimes do all those exercises twice a day. But then one afternoon, Katara asked him if she could join him. "What? Don't the Fire Ferrets run laps all day too?" He asked her as he stood there in his normal clothes and she was just standing there in a pair of running shorts and a tank top. He and his sister had practiced bending that morning, so he wasn't as tired as usual, but he suspected that Korra had asked her daughter to keep an eye on him to make sure he still was putting out the effort.

"What's wrong Mr. I-Am-The-New-Avatar." She taunted him as she began to stretch her legs out. "You scared about losing to the captain of your rival team, losing to the daughter of an Avatar, or losing to pretty little girl like me."

"I'm going to answer with no to all three of those questions, but I might take you up on your challenge if you would like to explain it to me first." He told her as he removed the heavy top of the practice uniform and just wore his favorite green muscle shirt. He could swear that she looked away and blushed at seeing him do that.

"Well, on the complete opposite side of the Island are two earthbending discs that just so happen to be lying on a stone pillar in the middle of the entrance pavilion. The two of us can take whatever route we choose to take that will get us to those discs and then return one of them to here." She took a stick and etched a circle in the sand that made up the trail. "If you win, I will give you a few new waterbending moves my mother hasn't show you yet." She saw him take a second to think about that and she nodded in agreement. "But if I win, you have to take me out to dinner at this one restaurant that serves authentic Water Tribe cuisine. It's not expensive but it will still be a nice little drop in your bank account as well as your stomach."

He looked at her with a look of confusing. "So let me get this straight, if you beat me in this little race of ours...I have to take you out on a date?" He looked at her. "But aren't you going out with Ru guy that is the firebender for your team?"

"Ru is not my boyfriend Tal, he only took me out to dinner once to thank me for letting him join the team now that Aang can't compete because he is with the police. Besides, the only time where our teams will have to compete against each were it will be for any value is in the final round of the championship tournament that is months away. And I should probably tell you that your sisters just so happen to be going out on a double date with Hiroshi and Ru tonight anyway." That last bit of info made some fire shoot out of Tal's hands.

"So you are saying that my little sisters are already dating the boys on your team!" He screamed as Katara just stood there with that smirk that made her look just like Korra years ago.

"Yep, so are you accepting my challenge or what?" she asked crossing her arms and now giving her impersonation of her mother's pout face. She knew Tal would be useless to resist it.

"Fine but what are the rules?"

"You can only earthbend because I can only waterbend. Everything else is open game." She saw him smile at the news of that. She knew what he was going to do, but she was pretty sure that he knew what she was going to do too. He was going to free run right through the temple and she was going to swim around the island with waterbending to greatly increase her speed.

"Very well, let's do this." he said as she turned to face the interior of the island and she turned to face the ocean. They touched their backs together to let the other know they were ready. "Ready? On three. One...Two...Three!" He was met with a kick to the back.

"Ladies first," Katara yelled as she had kicked him to knock him to the ground and then proceeded to dive off the edge of the trail right into the water.

Tal quickly recovered and sprinted up a nearby set of stairs as Katara began to swim and within, she was using the waterbending to greatly increase her speed. Tal got to the top of the long stairs and sprinted right through the main courtyard, then through the window of the main temple, sprinted right down the main hall and shot right through the open front doors. He kept up the fast pace as he ran through the main entrance courtyard and then slide down the side of the very long winding set of stairs that led down to the entrance pavilion near the dock where he saw the pillar holding the two discs.

He slid all the way down to the bottom and grabbed a discs just as Katara burst out of the water in a waterspout and grabbed her only seconds after he did. She then dove right back into the water and began to swim back. She was slightly slower now that one of her arms was carrying the disc. Her waterbending was cut in half, she could only use one of her arms to bend.

Tal then turned around to find himself looking ups at the very long stairs he just slid down. Now he had to run all the way up them. It took him a lot longer now to run with the disc in his arm but he still managed to run back the same way he came. He got to the other set of stairs and look down to see that Katara was still not back yet but was closing in fast. Tal jumped onto the side of the stairs and slid down to the bottom. Not it was just a dead sprint of about 50 meters as he saw Katara burst out of the water again but also 50 meters on the other side of the finish circle. They both saw each other's position and then started sprint to the finish. Tal could see she would make it there first, so he made a pillar of stone shot out of the ground right underneath her to send he flying into the air. She responded by sending a jet of dirty mud water from a large nearby puddle right into his face.

The water hit his face and he fell sliding forward. He kicked up a lot of dusty from the gravel trail and when it settled, he found that his discs was lying about a foot away from the circle. The circle that Katara stood right in the center of. She had won and was just standing there looking at him as he lay there on the ground all sweaty and panting for air.

"Narook's Seaweed Noodlery at 6 p.m." She told him as he stood up and she threw him her disc. "And will you please shower before you go? You smell like you just finished cleaning the sky bison's stables." She then began to walk towards the stairs he just took but she was flirting with him as she swung her hips as she walked. She had a very strong feeling that Tal was watching her do that.

Tal was indeed just standing there and watching. _Well,_ he thought to himself as he took the trail to get to the other side of the island where the ferry back to the city was. A smile formed on his face.

_ If you can't beat them...you might as well date them._

* * *

**So Katara's little plan worked, she managed to get him to take her out on a date. Though in a quite unusual manner.**

**One again, many thanks to those who are following this story and to those who favorite it and set up alerts for it. **

**And please keep the reviews coming in. Now that there is going to be some romance in this story, hopefully man more readers will begin to read it.**


	15. If you can't beat them date them

**Well, here we go again, another longe chapter.**

**But this one has some romance in it for those who love that stuff in your stories.** **So I think you won't mind it being a little long.**

* * *

Chapter 15: If you can't beat them... date them.

It was 4 in the afternoon when Tal finally reached the apartment. He was able to take a quick shower and changed into his cleanest set of clothes he had. It was the same style as always, he just added a different jacket he found from a nearby thrift store, and used his new favorite bandana to cover his top not hairstyle. He got to Narook's early and just sat at the bar drinking a soda, keeping an eye on the door, waiting for Katara to arrive.

Right at 6 pm. did she walk through the door. When he saw her, he had to do a double take. She looked gorgeous, she was wearing a short sundress but was wearing a pair of jean shorts. She did her hair in a different style, similar to the way her mom did it when she was younger, and she was wearing makeup. Tal couldn't think of a time when he ever saw her wearing makeup. She even was wearing heels. A pair that had some intricate set of ribbons twirling around her lower legs. It must have taken her forever to put those heels on. Katara really didn't look her normal self at all, like what she looked like when she was around him. He only recognized her when he saw her beautiful big blue eyes.

She walked over and took a seat next to him, but not before she moved her stool so that she was really close to him. Now he smelled perfume. Did she ever use that stuff either? "So, you do smell better than when I'm normally around you," she said as she looked at him. "Though I must say that you better be as good as my mom and aunt say, because you could use some probending winnings to buy newer clothes that that."

"All this coming from a girl who in the short time that I known her is wearing makeup, perfume, heels, and is showing off more skin than I've ever seen on her. And, whose hair looks like what her mom wore twenty years ago." He remarked as he ordered her a soda. "I've never though you would go to such lengths for a first date. If this even is a date. If so, a date you arranged by beating me in a race."

She just smiled as he told her this. "I'm usually a much more low maintenance girl. Consider this a welcome to the city gift." she took a sip from her drink when it arrived and just kept her eyes on him. "If you think I'm the only one here that doesn't look like themselves, look at you. I only recognized you with that bandana. I almost thought that you decided not to show up." He ordered for her a glass of soda from the man behind the counter and told her to be the one to decide what they would eat.

"Well," she told him quietly as she ordered two bowls of her favorite noodles, "Tonight, I'm just Kay, and you are?" He understood her meaning and answered with Mal. His old fake name he used back in Tree Line when not at home with his family.

"So Mal, where are you from exactly?" She shifted her stool even closer to him now. Their shoulders were almost touching.

"Oh , no place very special. Just a small town in the Earth Kingdom up where the massive forests of the Taiga suddenly turns into the frozen wastelands of the tundra. It is actually closer to the North Pole, the capital of the Northern Water Tribe than it is to the nearest village or town in the Earth Kingdom."

"So there were a lot more waterbenders there than earthbenders like you, huh?"

"Yes, but to everyone there except my family, I was just a nonbender. My whole family was." She nodded when she understood what he meant. Him and his whole family had to pretend to be on the side of the Equalists.

"Were there any girls back there you liked?" He seemed like he would have been on a few dates back them.

"Nope, all the girls my age, which weren't many, already had boyfriends."

"You've never dated anyone back there?"

"Too bust learning to do logging work and to tell you the truth, most of the girls back there wanted a waterbender for a boyfriend. They seem to last longer when the blizzards came, a nonbender, or another form of benders out in one of those could die in a matter of hours. How about you? How many dates has such a beautiful girl like you been on?" That really made her cheeks turn red.

"Just one really. I actually don't even think it was a date." She told him as their food arrived and they began to eat. The noodles reminded Tal of the food back home. Katara/Kay looked like she was enjoying her food as well. The Air Acolytes must not make Water Tribe food that often back on Air Temple Island.

"So," he asked her as he finished his bowl of noodles. "Does this one date you had know that he might not have counted as a date?"

"Yes, and he has already moved on to another girl. Some other waterbender named _May_." Tal nearly spit out the soda he was taking a drink from.

"May?" He knew exactly who _May_ was, it was Tay's old alias. They knew who each one was referring to.

"Yes and her twin, Mai, is dating my cousin." So Hiroshi had taken Tai the firebender out on the town for the night.

"Let me guess, those four had a part to play in what has resulted in you sitting right next to me and wearing makeup, perfume, and heels." They both took another sip of soda from their own glasses. Katara ordered two pieces of cake for them for dessert. "Exactly when did you decide to try and get me to take you out on a date?"

"When I decided that the Fire Ferrets and the Tree Line Three should not be rivals or worry about having to face each other. My mom is you teacher who is trying to train you to be ready for taking on the responsibilities as you-know-who." They were in public so she didn't want the news to leak out about there being two Avatars in the city. "Speaking of my mom, has she told you yet that she wants to inform the world of your arrival? She thinks it should be done before the season starts so the officials will know to keep an eye on you for any non-earthbending in the ring."

"When?" He asked her as their cake arrived.

"Tomorrow at noon in front of City Hall."

"Tomorrow!," he nearly choked on a chunk of the cake. "When was your mom going to tell me about this little press conference?"

"Tonight," Katara said as she just kept eating her cake in a dignified lady-like manner. "When you are dropping me off back at the front door to the temple before midnight or she will going send my dad and his police to find you and bring you back in chains." She smiled mischievously at him when he realized that Korra was also in on the whole make her daughter have a date with the new Avatar plan. He looked at a nearby clock and realized that he had about 4 hours of time left with her for the night so he signaled for their bill to arrive and he paid it fully with the Yuans he had in his pocket. Katara wasn't an expensive date, she just liked to keep throwing him curveballs every few seconds to keep him on his toes. _Well, two can play at that game_. He thought to himself as he took her hand like a gentleman and they both left the restaurant and went outside onto the sidewalk.

"Okay little miss Avatar's daughter," he told her out loud as he looked to make sure they weren't being followed. "Since we still got four hours until your parents want me to take you back to that offshore prison that you call a home. I thought it would be more than fair to show you where me and my sisters live." He kept holding her hand and he was beginning to really enjoy that feeling. Katara blushed at hearing this. _What in the heck is he thinking?_

He lead her to the apartment building and was about to start going up the have a dozen flights of stairs when Katara stopped. He looked at her and she pointed down at her feet. She was wearing heels, not tall one but he was sure that she did not want to climb up all those stairs with heels on. "I don't know about you country boy, but it took me the entire ferry ride from the temple to get these on and I'm sure as heck not just going to take them off just to go up some stairs. Isn't there an elevator?"

"Sorry princess," he said, "This place was too old for them and the management doesn't want to spend the money on one because there aren't that many people living in this building other them us and a few other small families." He was about to tell her to stop complaining when she spontaneously jumped onto his back.

"Well, if I'm a princess, then I need a ride so Yip Yip, Country Boy!"She wasn't even that heavy at all, so he started climbing up the stairs while carrying her on his back. Her hands were around his neck and she was resting her head next to his head while he did all the climbing.

"So exactly how long are my sisters going to be out this evening?"he asked her with labored breathing as he reached the third floor landing, but he climbing. He just hoped he did not start to sweat before finishing this chore.

"They should be back here by midnight. But before you get any ideas because it would be just the two of us, all alone up there, just remember what my parents will do to you if we were to do anything stupid. So you know what that means Mr. hormonal-teenage-boy." She knew that wasn't the case but she loved the look of his face when he blushed at that statement.

"I wasn't thinking that, princess!" he scolded her as he finally reached the top floor and kept carrying her all the way to the front door. "At least, not until you had mentioned that." He took out an old key from his pocket and opened the door. It was dark inside but he knew where the light switch was. When he turned the lights on, what Katara found made her think that they were still outside. The main room was decorated with many pots of potted plants and small trees. Most of them pine and very fragrant. The fireplace was on but there were also a few small decorative fountains quietly spewing water over rocks in them. But the biggest surprise was what was on the wall.

Weapons, and a whole lot of them. Weapons used by Equalists and non-benders alike. "Wow." was all Katara could say as she looked at the various swords, knives, bows, axes, saws, hooks for climbing trees, and even a few sets of those electrified Equalist gloves her mother told her once about. It kind of freaked her out a bit but then she also felt quite safe knowing that Tal was standing right next to her and watching her admire the collect he and his sister had made. "Did you three bring all these weapons from you home up north?"

"Not all of them," he said s he put his hands on his waist with pride. "Nearly 50 pounds of weapons and tools we were able to salvage from Tree Line. The other 200 pounds from just looking out for the opportunity to obtain them here in the city. You will be surprised what people call _trash_ these days." Katara gave him a look of disgust. He was dumpster diving."But that's for only tools, weapons, furniture, furnishings, decorations, ad anything else that we saw. Food and clothing that is in a trashcan stays in that trashcan. We get our food from the market nearby and most of our clothing is from the thrift shops around town." He then led her to the porch which provided them with a view of the entire city.

He even had found an old telescope which he fixed. Katara used it and found out that from this vantage point, they could see through the glass dome of the probending arena and could watch the matches, albeit from a great distance. She then shifted her view to Air Temple Island, but it was still too far away to get much detail from here. She remembered that the window to her room faced the city towards the arena. She and Tal could see where each other lived but they still lived in two very different worlds. She lived in a protected setting on the island far from the view of the public. Tal and his sisters had to live by with only each other for money mostly and were lucky to have been picked up by Tahno , on the good side of the White Lotus. If not, they would have most likely be homeless.

The two of them spent the next hour or so pointing out all the features Katara should have been able to see from up on the porch. He even pointed out some of his favorite free running routes to he and his sisters would use to get from their apartment to almost anywhere in that district of the city. He and his sisters never had to worry about the cops looking for them on the rooftops and only the ones who could metalbend used the thousands of cables that crossed over all the streets. Tal and his sisters however, could not cross the streets doing it out of fear of falling to their deaths.

Tal then carried Katara back down the stairs and they walked by the arena to get to the ferry. They both held hands as they leaned against the railing watching the giant statue of Avatar Aang to by. Katara was leaning more on him than the railing but Tal really did not mind at all. They reached the pier and they walked over to the long stair case that slowed Tal down considerably earlier that day. Tal, being the gentleman, carried Katara yet again, all the way up. He sure hoped Korra wasn't planning on him doing any workouts tomorrow after that news conference she had planned. He was already getting pretty sore from just carrying Katara up and down stairs all night.

They reached the top and walked through the entrance courtyard and then turned to the building where Korra's family lived separate from the Airbender families and the Air Acolytes. It was about another hour until midnight but they had decided earlier to call it a day before then because of having to get up early to get ready for that conference. When they reached the front door, Katara stopped on the porch and turned to him smiling.

"So Mr. Avatar, considering the facts that the members of the Fire Ferrets are dating the members of the Tree Line Three, I would like to propose a truce to our supposed rivalry. Besides, the next Team Avatar is going to need new members. My parents don't look like they want to leave the city to fend for itself while they go and solve the rest of the world's problems." She then used those heels to her advantage of giving her some height. With them on, she was nearly as tall as Tal was so she kissed him on the cheek. "But I'm sure members of two certain probending teams wouldn't mind traveling around the world with _Avatar Tal_."

She then proceeded to kiss him right on the lips. He wasn't expecting her to kiss him on the lips. He was surprised, but he liked this surprise.

* * *

**Oh how cute, they kissed. The daughter of Avatar Korra kissed the new there is your main "ship" for the story. The other two were also mentioned briefly in here as well. As well as the possible next "Team Avatar".**

**Finally, yet again, more thankyous to those who have kept up reading all my writing. And thankyou to those who** **follow/favorite this story. **

**And also much thanks to those who leave reviews. They keep my spirit of writing going throw the fact that not many people have been reading this and I'm only writing to keep those who do follow this story happy and not left out in the cold.**


	16. Avatar Tal

**Yet again, another long chapter. **

* * *

Chapter 16: Avatar Tal

She then proceeded to kiss him right on the lips. He wasn't expecting her to kiss him on the lips. He was surprised, but he liked this surprise. That was all Tal could think about as he walked back down that long set of stairs and boarded the ferry back to the arena. It was all he could think about during the whole ferry ride. Katara, the daughter of Avatar Korra, kissed him. She kissed him on the lips and then said goodbye to him and then went inside her family's house on the island. She kissed him.

Tal really did not how he was able to get back to the apartment when all he could think about was Katara kissing him, but somehow he suddenly found himself in front of the door to his bedroom in the apartment. The doors to his sister's rooms were closed so he took off his boots and threw them into his room. He then returned to the hallway and proceed to stomp his foot hard onto the floor once. It was a little trick Korra had taught him the week before about using earthbending to feel vibrations. He was able to sense that there was only one person in each of the girls beds. Katara had assured that Ru and Hiroshi wouldn't try anything stupid and Tal had to remind her that his sisters are more than capable of protecting themselves. Of course, he didn't know if either of the girls would give consent anyway.

Assured that his sisters did not have any company with them in the apartment without his knowledge, Tal went back to his room. Instead of changing into his sleepwear, he just flopped onto his bed and went to sleep. All he could seem to dream about was Katara until the old windup alarm clock on his nightstand woke him up a 6 in the morning. He had had a full 5 hours of sleep. He went and showered, changed into a newer set of clothes that actually were not from a thrift store. He entered the kitchen to find Tai and Tay still in their night gowns drinking a blend of tea that could give an almost immediate surge of energy. "Good morning!" he screamed at them as she tried to shield their ears from the volume of his voice. He then went back to his normal level. "When were you two going to tell me that the two of you are dating Hiroshi and Ru?"

"So what?"Tay said as she water bended more tea from kettle of the stove into the teacup in her hands. "What's the world going to say when they find out that the is a new Avatar and he is dating the daughter of the other Avatar?"

"Yes big brother," Tai said she used some firebending to warm up her tea even more. "Me and Tay are very responsible and do not want to be mothers at only the age of 16." Tal took a seat at the table they were at and Tay waterbended some tea to fill a cup sitting on the table in front of him.

"So, how was your date with Katara?" They used that weird twin powers again to say it in unison to him. "Where did you go? What did you do. And did you kiss?" He was amazed that his sisters could say all that at the same time.

"We went to Narook's, then we came here and I showed her the view we have up here and then we went back to Air Temple Island. I have to carry her up and down all the stairs because she had that crazy pair of heels. And yes, she did kiss me. First the cheek...and then the lips." He cringed in embarrassment as the two girls oh and awed at hearing that. He had a feeling that Katara was getting a similar treatment from her family back on the island. "But don't worry about the press finding out about me and Katara. Tal and Katara have never been on a date together, but there is this one couple that looks almost like them, Mal and Kay." The twins laughed at hearing that.

The girls spent the next hour getting freshened up and dressed into their own sets of nicer clothes than normal. The bulk of attention during the press conference was going to be focused on Korra and their brother, but they knew that people were going to be looking at them too because they were the Avatar's sisters. This fact, and that now that they were dating Ru and Hiroshi, meant that the twins decided to were outfits much more conservative that their normal clothing. They left the apartment and began the rather lengthy walk to City Hall.

Korra's sons met them the steps in front of the building. Zuko, and Sokka were dressed up a bit and Tal suspected that the boys were feeling uncomfortable in the little formal outfits their mother was making them wear. Aang, being a cop, was dressed in the new all-black battle utilities that had pieces of metal sewn in between the layers to make them impervious to chi-blocking. He was also wearing a tactical vest with various tools used by the police in pouches on it. A red beret with the logo of the police was covering his short black hair. Aang looked it he was about to go into a battle, not just stand next to his family as his parents gave the public the news about Tal. He escorted everyone inside to the main hall where the United Republic of Nation Council was seated and waiting for their arrival.

Aang kept his beret on when he went inside because he was considered to be on duty. Officers who were on duty were to keep their color coded berets on even when inside. The council consisted of both a bender and a non-bender from each of the main nations or tribes of the world, a bender and nonbender representative for Republic City, Mako as the Chief of police, Commander Iroh II (Fire Lord Zuko's Grandson) for the military, and last but the least, Korra as she was the Avatar. Since his beret was on, he was going to have to salute the council when he approached them while the rest of the group stayed a few yards behind him. "Good morning honorable council members," Aang said to them as he rendered a perfect salute. "Lieutenant Aang reporting the arrival of the Tree Line Three as ordered." He recited the entire phrase in perfect military bearing. The bender representative from the Northern Water Tribe, the pre-assigned speaker for the dismissed Aang and told him to take a seat next to the rest of his family seated in the audience section off to one side of the central aisle. Aang saluted again and took a spot between Hiroshi and Katara. The male speaker asked that the three orphans approach the council.

Tal and his sisters walked up to the platform where the council sat behind their desks. "You are Tal?" he asked the teen. Tal nodded but didn't say a thing. "And the two girls with you are your sisters, Tai and Tay?" Tal nodded again. Then the speaker began to give his spiel. "I have just returned from a trip to visit my family back at the North Pole only the last week. When I got there, I was informed of the massacre and took a side trip to visit the now abandoned town and the site when everyone's remains were burned. You three have my dearest sympathies and those of my people and also the other council members. Just this morning, we have approved the idea of creating a memorial for those who were killed and to give all of them, bender and nonbender alike, a proper burial." The three teenagers thanked the council for such good news.

"It has also come to our attention that you Tal, have somehow been blessed by the spirits and have been giving the powers of an Avatar even though or esteemed Avatar Korra is still alive and will most likely still be alive for many years. She had however, explained this phenomenon by telling us that Avatar Aang, and the other Avatars of the past have decide to allow their spirits to be present in two souls on earth at the same time. Meaning that the world now has two Avatars to help keep peace. So we politely ask that you come with us at noon to be presented before the press so that the world will know of your arrival as Avatar Tal." Tal agreed to come and the council thanked him.

The speaker then proceeded to finish up his little address. "We have also been informed that Madam Sato of Future Industries, has decided to sponsor you and your sisters in the upcoming probending season. Avatar Korra had lessened the fears of some of us that you will not be ready to help as the next Avatar if you are spending the majority of your time doing probending. Avatar Korra has however told us that she is teaching you all she knows and that you have almost master earthbending and have a superb grip on fire as well. She has also informed us that you are having some issues with air and water but she had told us that you have only just discovered those two just within the last few months. Avatar Korra has assured us that you Tal will be ready to keep the peace outside of Republic City while she helps the capital when the need arises. So with all that, may we all go outside to proclaim the good news to the people." There was a short time for applause from everyone for the speakers address and they all got up from their seats to greet Tal as they walked out to the awaiting press.

While they were still inside, Katara walked up to Tal and gave him a quick little kiss on the check without anyone noticing. "Good luck! Because you are going to have to answer some of the reporter's questions." That made Tal nervous, but that kiss from her brightened his spirits.

Once outside, the same man who was the speaker inside, also gave a similar address to press about the massacre at Tree Line and the council's decision to create a memorial for the victims. He then introduced Tal and his sisters as the only known survivors of the massacre and their intent to represent the town on the probending league while sponsored by Future Industries. The press applauded at certain points and were taking pictures when the speaker told him that Avatar Korra had also an important address to give. The press listened intently as Korra spoke on about her duty as an Avatar and how she at time felt overwhelmed about her responsibilities as Avatar to not only Republic City, but to the rest of the world. She then told them that as she lay dying that one night nearly 20 years prior after that assassination attempt, the powers of the Avatar were given to Tal, who was born later. This made nearly everyone taking notes, picture or using the new technology of movie cameras, to gasp at such news. Korra gave her explanation of why, the population increase and what else Aang told her and Tal when they meditated that one afternoon.

Many reporters began to barrage with questions as to how Tal could be an Avatar while she was still alive. She asked Tal to approach the podium and told him to gave a small demonstration of his powers. Tal stopped everyone's doubts when he stepped to the side and earthbended a pillar of rock to shoot him into the air. He then firebended two large flames from his hands and then shot two small gusts of air that boomed loudly despite their size. He finished by causing the large fountain in the courtyard that was in front of City Hall to suddenly sent its contents many meters into the air before letting it fall back into the fountain. The crowd applauded loudly with each feat. He then finished by causing the pillar he had made to shoot back into the ground , causing him to go back down to the same elevation as everyone else.

Tal's display of his powers only made the press hammer out more questions at him, and now he was behind the podium. It was all him now. He started like any other nervous teen boy would do when having to speak in front of a crowd. He was speechless for a second and then said hi. He answered a question about his parents. He told them that they were originally Equalists until they found out that he could earthbend, and then hid him in plain sight for all those years until the massacre. He answered one about when he realized he was an Avatar. He replied that his parents must have figured it out back on his last birthday when he nearly burned everyone when trying to blow out the candles on his cake. He answered on why he came to the capital was because he and his sisters did not want to be stuck near where their lives were ruined when the Equalists attacked.

There were a few questions about his ability to solely use earthbending when in the ring but he assured then that he would make sure he didn't use his powers to give his team the advantage. Then one of the reporters, one that wrote for a tabloid asked him if there was a special girl he was seeing. He answered that with "No comment." The crowd laughed at the response and the tabloid reporter walked away. Tal then gave the microphone back to Korra and the speaker who then thanked everyone for coming and then lead the group back inside the building and closing the doors shut. The council dismissed themselves and Tal was left in the main hall with just Aang for company as everyone else went to go eat at some nearby fancy restaurant. Tal told them he wanted to stay back for a bit and would join them later on. Mako made Aang stay back as well to serve was an guide from City Hall and to the restaurant.

While Aang went off to a dressing room to change out of his comfortable work uniform into his very uncomfortable dress uniform, Tal just sat on the steps up to the council's desks in the main hall. He had been put through a lot in such a short period of time. The teen boy from a small town in the middle of spirit forsaken nowhere was now going to be the talk of the world by morning. That trick with the fountain took a lot of energy from him. He had never moved so much water at once before. Korra always had him working with only a few gallons from large jars, not one of the city's largest fountains. He felt like taking a few minutes to doze off for a bit to recharge but he then heard a voice from behind him. "Avatar Tal, is there a special girl that you are seeing or are you still single?" He turned to find out that it was Aang impersonating the reporter with his best female voice. He then did his impersonation of Tal going huh, and then saying no comment.

"You should have seen Katara's face after that!" The cop said as he sat down next to Tal appearing to be very stiff in that stupid uniform of his. "She looked as if she was going to kill that lady." They both shared a laughed and Aang told him that Katara was getting questioned by their father this morning about what she and Tal did the night before. He told Tal that she kept it vague but she did assure her parents that there was no shenanigans involving her and Tal. "No come on lover boy," he told the love struck teen. "We need to pick up _my girlfriend_ on the way to dinner, and I don't want to be late. They're probably all half drunk off of champagne right about now waiting for us."

"Aye Aye Lover Boy!" Tal said as he shot up from his seat and gave Aang a mock salute. That got both of them laughing as they left City Hall and began to walk to the home of Aang's girlfriend.

* * *

**Well now there has been more characters introduced and now the world will know they have 2 Avatars to deal with.**

**Thankyou to those who are reading and follow/favorite this story, and /or leave reviews.**


	17. The Bet

**Sorry for the few days without an update, but I made a nice 3k plus chapter to make up for it.**

**Thankyou to those who continue to read this and follow/favorite/review it.**

* * *

Chapter 17: The Bet

The walk from City Hall turned out to be only a few blocks. Aang lead Tal to a massive building on the main avenue of the city, the theatre. The two of them walked to the back entrance and the guard posted at the door let them in.

"Jazzi is an actress here at the main theatre in town," Aang told him as he lead the two of them through the maze of passages that made up the basement of the building. "She is a waterbender that I just so happened to save from a mugging a few months back. She is known for portraying both my mom and Avatar Aang's wife Katara in a few plays. The Katara part was her first job as she was in a play they made about her life from childhood until death. My mom even was an adviser for the play and she met her. That was years ago and she then took us to see Jazzi portray Katara as a teenager during her travels with the previous Avatar." He kept walking pass all the doors that lead to the dressing rooms, storage rooms, and workshops.

"So a few months back, right after the probending season ended for the Fire Ferrets and I retired to join my dad on the police, Jazzi was going to get something to eat after doing a play where she was acting as my mom during the time when the Equalists were lead by Amon. She was in the middle an alley one night and some thieves rob her. I was nearby on patrol that night and stopped the robbers and saved her life after one of them tried to pull a knife on her. She was so thankful that she asked me to join her for dinner after my shift was over. We've been dating ever since. She was surprised that Avatar Korra is my mother. She nearly fainted after hearing that." He laughed a bit as they finally reached a door with Jazzi's name on it. He knocked on the door and they were told to enter.

The went in to find a nice sized apartment. Jazzi's acting skills had earned her a dressing room complete with a small bedroom, a bathroom, and a very small kitchen. It was decorated in hundreds of posters advertizing just as many plays, musical, concert, and symphonies. A dozen of those posters were of plays and musicals she had performed in. Soon a very pretty 20 year old girl who had all the stereotypical traits of a Water Tribe girl: Tanned skin, blue eyes, and black hair. She was dressed in a very beautiful cocktail dress and short pair of heels. Tal assumed that she was Jazzi and had to act like he was only a fly on the wall as Aang kissed her for probably a little bit too long.

The two of them finally had to break the kiss to breathe again and Jazzi was soon able to get out of the embrace Aang had her in. She told them that she was listening to the press conference on the radio and she was sure that the teen boy standing next to her boyfriend was Tal, the new Avatar. Jazzi shook his hand gleefully and told him that it was such a honor to have met him. Aang took her by the hand and lead her and Tal back through the maze of hallways underneath the theatre and got them back outside. It was only a walk of a few block for them to reach the upscale restaurant, Kuang's Cuisine. The priciest place in town to eat.

"My parents never eat here by themselves," Aang told Tal as they walked through the entrance. "They don't like to waste the money or show off the powers of their positions on the council. My guess is that one of the other council members is going to try and get you into under their influence." Aang kept his one arm for Jazzi to hold onto, but he then also grabbed Tal hard by the shoulder and whispered into his ear. "Be prepared for anything." Aang only let go of his grip after Tal nodded that he understood what the firebender meant. Avatar Korra's eldest son must have known something was up.

A waiter stationed at the front door escorted them to a private room where the rest of the group was sitting around a large table. It was just like the meal they had a month before back on Air Temple Island. One change was that the council members replaced most of the Airbenders at the table, except Jinora, who was the representative for the Air Nomads, her family. The other change was that Tal saw that Ru, the tall firebender sitting next to his waterbending sister, Tay. The two of them were not doing anything, they were way outside their comfort level. Kuang's was way to above the price level of Ru's family's teashops and Tay never did like fancy food. Hiroshi and Tai were next to them. "Well Tal," Aang said as they walked over to the table. "Try not to upset my dad to much tonight." He and Jazzi took two open spots between his mother and little brothers. The only open spot now left at the table was next to Katara, but also next to Chief Mako.

Tal took his seat and felt a bit more at ease because Katara was next to him. The council was too busy asking Korra questions about keeping Tal's arrival such a secret for so long, so they never noticed Mako asking Tal what he and Katara did on their date the night before. He answered truthfully: dinner at Narook's, followed by sightseeing from his apartment's porch, concluding with him escorting her back to her home of the island.

"You forgot the part about my daughter kissing you on the cheek and then the lips," Mako remarked to the teen as Katara's face turned to them with a look of shock. She didn't know her father had been watching them. Did he also hear what she told Tal about she and her friends tagging with him while he traveling around the world trying to keep the peace? Mako turned to face his only daughter. The council was still pelting his wife with questions about Tal, so they, including Korra, were too busy to pay attention to what he was telling the two teenagers.

"Sweetie," He told her using his old nickname for her. "Being in a relationship with an Avatar is not exactly a walk in park. There will be times when you two will fight. There will be times when you can't be together. There will be times when he will could be gone for months at a time far away from you, and many desperate women will try to swoon him." He took a quick glance at Korra who was still able to keep her temper down as the council kept trying to ask her if she was keeping any other secrets from them. He knew that she was going to vent it all out later that evening at home and it will be directed at him. " Personally, I'm beginning to like the whole idea of Tal being an Avatar too. Your mom can finally have some of the responsibilities taken off her shoulders and give them to Tal."

He stole another glance at Korra, this time her face was beginning to get a little red from all the anger of how stupid the council could be at sometimes. The council better end the argument soon or Korra was going to start throwing fireballs at them...again. "When me and your uncle first met your mom, she thought that she was a failure of an Avatar. Not being able to airbend, the whole Amon fiasco, me dating your aunt Asami at the time." He saw the teens' jaws drop at such news. He probably should have told Katara this stuff when she was younger. "Korra could at sometimes become a emotional wreck, but then things began to turn around."

The kitchen finally began to churn out their meals and the wait staff started to wait on everyone's littlest issue. The council finally ended the assault on Korra, but not before she gave them that trademark I'm-watching-you gesture at them to know that this whole argument wasn't over just yet. They then turned their attention to Tal instead.

"So Avatar Tal," asked the female bending member of the council for the Earth Kingdom. "Would you care to explain your answer to the question that one tabloid reporter asked you?" She was seated directly across the table from him. Tal took a sip of the soup they were being served first. Everyone stopped talking so the room became much more quiet. It seemed that the whole room wanted to hear his explanation of his comment.

"I said no comment because there was no special someone back in Tree Line when I was there. There were few girls around my age and they were all had bending boyfriends. Most of the town's population was benders, mostly waterbenders considering that we were closer to the North Pole than to the next closest town in the Earth Kingdom. Me and my sisters had to hide our bending abilities from the town to protect us and our parents who were under the influence of that crazy monster _The Doctor_. No girl up there in her right mind would want a nonbender like me, I had no usefulness up there other than to chop down trees in the forest outside of town in the taiga, or help drill for oil on the one oil derrick we had out on the tundra." Tal wasn't done with his answer, he was just waiting for the lady to take the bait.

"So why were male benders more sought after than nonbenders, Avatar Tal?"

"It's because the ground up there is permanently frozen only a few feet down underground. All pipes have to be aboveground because the contents would freeze if they were underneath the surface. Waterbenders and firebenders could keep the suspended pipes from freezing in the air. Have you even seen a oil pipe burst because of the pressure built up from having a blockage in the pipe? Precious oil would spill everywhere and damage the environment and we couldn't keep the town warm during the 9 month long winters we have up there. It's even worst in one of the water lines burst...or if one of the sewer lines blow."

He watched as most of the council had to stop eating for a moment to keep from vomiting. They had fallen for the trap. Tal heard Katara and Korra both begin to laugh. Mako slapped Tal on the back with a good pat. He loved it when the council got their just desserts. Even the members from the Water Tribes laughed, they knew about having to deal with stuff like that so they didn't fall for the trick. "Besides, me and my sisters were too busy honing our bending skills in secret at our home instead of wasting our time in relationships." Before he could get any more questions thrown at him, the main course was served and everyone was too busy eating to keep talking.

"Nice work there, my pipe thawing Avatar boyfriend." Katara whispered to him. "I didn't know you men up there were so useful."

"Well, my little water goddess," he whispered back to her. "When the main sewer pipe in town bursts suddenly and you have no working bathrooms in all of town for a week, you can see why women up there love having a man who can keep the pipes thawed. And they also say that male and female waterbenders were supposedly coveted for other _reasons_ as well."

"Like what?" She asked him with a small smile.

"Nothing I can really tell you here while I'm within earshot of your parents." He made sure everyone else was still occupied with their food, and then spoke right into her ear. "Let's just say that those who had a little knowledge in the art of bloodbending were said to be very good in bed and had a had a lot of children." Katara had to bit her to keep from laughing out loud.

"So, my handsome, handy, Avatar. If someday, shall I say, we get married, the two of us are going to be rather _busy_, if you get my drift. _The great Avatar Tal returns from another year long mission of peace only to find that he is the father of yet another newborn child from his beautiful wife, Katara_. I think that it's going to be a couple more years before I would even want to begin thinking of having a baby."

"Well princess, I suspect that it's going to be a few years before your parents would even allow us to get married, if we even manage to stay together that long. Our dates will not be consisting of the two of us doing to _the Tree Line Two Step_ for a very, very, very long time." She laughed a bit louder at that comment but no one really paid any attention to her. And nobody saw that the two teenagers were holding hands underneath the table.

Dinner ended and dessert was served. The torte cake was delicious and everyone was enjoying it as a employee of Future Industries entered the room and handed a few large envelopes to Asami who thanked the person and had a large smile on her face. She handed Tal and Katara two of the envelopes. In them were letters from the probending league stating what times the teams had to arrive for team photos, news conferences, practice times in the arena's gym, and last but not least, the season's schedule. Pre-season matches were scheduled to begin within the next week.

The two team captains looked in horror as they discovered that they would be the first pre-season match to take place this season. They also had to compete against each other two other times during the inter-league portions of the season that took place a month after the season started, and a month before the season ended. Mako could tell by looks on the faces of the two teens seated next to him. "Well isn't this just perfect," He said out loud as he finished the last bite of his cake. "My daughter whose mother is an Avatar, has to fight against the new Avatar. You two should make a bet, say loser has to ask the winner out on a date." He loved watching the two teens blush from embarrassment. Everyone laughed at Mako's comment including the council. The only thing was that most of those seated at the table, minus the council, already knew that Tal and Katara were dating.

"You're on Mr. Pipe Thawing Avatar!" Katara smirked at Tal.

"Then it's a bet, little Miss Avatar Princess." Tal replied right back at her.

"When we win, you are taking me here for dinner." She told him.

"Well, when we win, you and me are going to have a picnic out in the forest near Tree Line: in the winter, during a blizzard and we won't be wearing parkas, so we're going to have to get pretty close to each other for warmth." That made the other members of the teams make cat calls and whistle at the two of them.

"Then it's a bet," Katara said as she held out her hand for Tal to shake. The hand that a minute ago was holding his underneath the table. "Too bad your idea of a date isn't going to happen Mr. Hormones. But if you somehow miraculously win, I already have a cute little outfit planned for it just in case. But since the Fire Ferrets are going to win, I expect you to wear a tux when you take me here for dinner next week."

Korra was getting a little worried and lean over to her husband. "Should we try and break this up?" She asked him quietly.

"No way sweetheart," he told her, "This is a better bet than the time you and me sparred all those years ago down at the south pole during our honeymoon. Remember, loser had to skinny dip into that one lake just outside of the White Lotus compound?"

"Oh yes I remember, we both lost and we had to jump into that lake together. Then we had use each other's body heat to get warm. And if I'm correct, which of course I am. That little stunt ended up with me giving birth to Aang 9 months later."

She continued, "And then there was the time we got drunk together at Asami and Bolin's wedding reception because you thought you could out drink me. That ended with Katara being born later that year. Oh, and let's not forget the time we nearly both got killed by that volcano out in the Fire Nation. I stopped the volcano, you saved us from the deadly fumes in that cave we were trapped in and somehow our Zuko and Sokka were born almost exactly 9 months after that."

"Let's just face the facts my love. If it wasn't for all those events, we would have no kids and life would be boring." He pointed at the two teens next to him that were still glaring at each other without saying a word. "Besides, if he wins, we will be tagging along because neither of them can steer a sky bison and we can act as chaperones. I promise, our daughter will not become a mother until after she is married to I'm pretty sure the boy sitting next to her. If not, let's just say that Tal is going to have trouble being able to have kids after that." He showed Korra his good old trademarked smile she couldn't help but love.

Korra looked over at her daughter and noticed that both she and Tal had one of their hands underneath the table. They were making it look like they hated each other but they really were both deeply in love with one another. Katara and Tal were just like her and Mako, the perfect couple.

* * *

**Yep, now that's is how bets should work!**

**You all now can't hardly wait until I write the chapter when the two teams fight. Hell! You can't sem to stand the wait for the chapter after that too! I'm guessing that you would all want Tal to win but I just might make Katara win instead. Is it possible for pro-bending matches to finish in draw?**


	18. The Lesson

**Sorry for the wait. I took a little trip up north to visit a relative I don't get to see that often.**

**I was able to drive an old Jeep across Wisconsin in only four and a half hours. I was averaging 75mph. And I never saw a cop!**

**Now then, here is the next chapter. I decided to make a funny chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 18: The Lesson

The dinner ended and everyone was soon on their separate ways back to their homes. Tal and his sisters took the long walk back to their apartment, discussing the news that the three of them would have to play a match against the very people they were dating. They began to plan new strategies on how they were going to beat the Fire Ferrets. Tal asked the girls if they felt okay about the fact that they might have to attack their boyfriends themselves if the situation arose. They replied that it would be hard, but they would manage and then they asked him about Katara. He didn't want to have to resort to sending earth discs screaming right at the girl he was losing his heart to. The three of them decided to assign individual targets for one another. Tal would take care of Ru. Tay would go after Hiroshi, and Tai would get Katara. They even planned for Tal go after both Ru and Hiroshi and the twins would go after Katara if the need to came to fruition.

The apartment was quiet and dark when they arrived. They just wished each other a good night and went into their bedrooms and went straight to sleep. Practice with Korra tomorrow morning was going to be fun. The morning sun was barely in the sky when the three of them took the first ferry out to the island. They had already been practicing for at least 90 minutes before Korra showed up with a cup of warm tea to wake her up. She was never a morning person and she believed that the morning was evil, a belief that got passed down genetically to her children as well. All four of her children were still in bed, tired from the previous night's dinner. She was still a bit groggy and it she just say on a nearby rock and watched as three teenagers kept up a barrage of attacks on three targets made of metal and looked like people. A few minutes later, her eyes must have had enough caffeine because she then noticed that each of the targets had either a big R, H, or K painted right on the chest. Then she noticed that the teens where wearing bandanas under their helmets which covered their faces. These masks made the wearer's face appear to be a skull. She look over at a nearby rock where the teen usually left their backpacks which held their street clothes and some of their weapons. On top of the rock was the morning news paper, the probending section of it lying on the front. The title of the main article was titled: _The Tree Line Three: 'The Walking Dead'_. It was about how the three teens were the only known survivors of the massacred that claimed the town of Tree Line. Korra stopped reading the article to watch Tal send a fury of discs at the R and H targets, while Tai and Tay double teamed the K target. Then it her, the targets were made to look like members of the Fire Ferrets. The Tree Line Three were picking their targets before the match had even took place.

Korra then remembered the talk she and Mako had before they went to bed the night before. Korra wanted the Fire Ferrets to win so that her poor little Katara wouldn't be forced to sit in the woods without a coat. Katara might be a waterbender, who should easily be able handle the cold but Korra had the guilt of a mother and didn't want her baby to get sick. Mako told her that the Three would win, so he and Korra did what was natural for them to do as parents, they acted like teenagers and made a bet. If the Ferrets won, Mako had to take Korra out to Kuang's as Tal's and Katara's Chaperones that evening and pay both couple's bills. If the Three won, Korra was going to have to come along with him as he flew one a sky bison up to Tree Line for Tal's and Katara's parka-less picnic in a blizzard, and Korra was going to have to go without a parka too.

She looked up from the paper again to watch as Tay sent a very powerful water jet blast right at the head of the K target, sending the weighted target back all the way past the knock-out line. Korra shivered for a second even though the morning air was unseasonably warm. She could already feel the freezing air of that blizzard. Then Tal suddenly sent all the discs on the entire ring right at the center mass of the H and R targets which were then too sent far past the knock-out line. Mako was almost guaranteed to win the bet. The match, with the new rules for fighting in place for the last few seasons, was almost in the bag for a team that could be physically strong, very fast, and very good benders. A bending only team wouldn't last too long out there in the ring against Tree Line's _Walking Dead_.

The three teenagers, now without any targets left on the field of play, stopped their sparring and removed their helmets and took off the bandanas. Their faces were covered in sweat and the masks were drenched as well. They approached Korra and asked her about how she felt about the unofficial nickname the press had given them, and the idea that they used to keep that nickname in use to terrify the other teams. She told them the truth that she really did not like it but it was their decision to do it and not hers. She then asked them if they had been picking out their targets. They told her yes but because it would then allow for them to be able to not have to fight their boyfriends/girlfriend and not cause any harm to those that they cared solely about. They them told her that they would be calling it quits for today as they had their team photo shoot at noon in the arena. Tal did however tell Korra that he would be returning in the afternoon for his daily Avatar training session.

Seeing as that she had the rest of the morning to herself, Korra told the teens to go to their respected showers in the dormitories on the island and freshen up before their trip back to the mainland. Tal was the first to leave for the boy's dorms and soon Tai and Tay left to go to the girl's dorms. The two twins were in the hallway leading to the shower room when they nearly bumped into Katara. She was still in her sleeping gown and she looked like she had barely gotten any sleep. She asked the twins why they were already done with practice, and found out about the photo shoot. They also told her that Tal was secretly a bit nervous about doing his Avatar training for that afternoon.

It was his scheduled day to learn waterbending and Korra had it so that he would be in the Bay this afternoon learning how to swim superfast. The thing was however, Tal and his sisters didn't know how to swim. It was always too cold up in Tree Line to go swimming in one of the hundreds of lakes in the area so they were never taught how to swim. Katara told the girls that she would tell her mother about this and use the afternoon, to help teach the twins and their brother. She even had the perfect outfit picked out in her mind. The water in the bay would be comfortable and the day's air temperature was going to be very hot and sticky. A perfect day to go for a swim, or to learn how to swim.

She bid the sisters farewell as they continued their walk to the showers and she went to the main kitchen to get some breakfast. When she walked in, she found her mother reading the newspaper's probending section. Katara grabbed her favorite cereal, _Fire Flakes_, and sat down at the table next to her mother. Korra show her the article and Katara read it while she took a few bites of her breakfast. "_The Walking Dead_ might sound like a terrifying nickname mom, but I just found out that the three of them can't swim."

"Why in the world didn't Tal tell me that?" Korra asked her daughter as she took the paper back and went on to read the rest of the actual news lines, like the one about Tal's arrival and her announcement of a second Avatar to the world. "I can't teach him waterbending if he can't swim. That just threw off all my plans for today."

"I got an idea mom," Katara told her as she finished her cereal. "How about I teach them all today this afternoon. Maybe you can have the day off and spend it with dad or Aang or the two terrors. Besides, it's already very warm outside and training now out there will be just too much, even for out great new Avatar." Korra could sense the tone in her daughter's voice, maybe today was a bad day to train, a good swim would do the teens some good.

"Very well Katara. I'll go spend my day with you father and brothers in the city. You should think about inviting Hiroshi and Ru over too. The Sato mansion might have an indoor pool but it's still nothing compared to the sea, and I highly doubt that Ru had ever spent much time swimming either. That poor boy is always having to help his parent with those tea shops." Katara hugged and thanked her mother and went running to her room to call Hiroshi and Ru to tell them that today's afternoon practice at the Sato mansion was cancelled and that the two boys should come to the island to go swimming in the bay.

At the probending arena, the Tree Line Three were having their pictures taken while reporters barraged them with questions about how they think they will do this season. They were asked about their impromptu nickname of _The Walking Dead_ that they had receive that morning from the press. They answered the reporters by donning their skull masks underneath their helmets. This caused a dozen cameras to take even more pictures of them. One reported asked Tal how he thinks he will fare against some of the best benders in the world while he was still training to be an Avatar. He answered them by telling them to find out in the match against the Fire Ferrets at the end of the week.

The rest of the photo shoot was simple and then the three of them changed back into their street clothes, but not before the girls told Tal about their conversation with Katara about the swimming lessons. His only reply was to come out of the boy's locker room with a pair of old shorts and shoes on instead of his usual pants and boots. The girls came out of the girls locker room both wearing their one pieces under their clothes. The three of them smiled at the thought of what they were about to do. Tal's little plan had worked.

Another ferry ride back to the island and the long walk up the stairs again to Katara's house, and the three of them found Katara lying on the porch in just a string bikini. She was lying on her stomach and soaking up the sun of the hot day. They were still a few dozen yards away from the waterbender, but Tal stopped them from going any closer. He saw that Katara did not have her top on. She was working on improving her already near perfect tan she got from her mom's genes by tanning without a top on so she would not get tan lines. He told the girls to go up to her and wake her up, she appeared to b napping while he turned around so he would not look like a pervert.

Tai and Tay walked over to their friend and Tai tapped Katara's shoulder to wake her up. She woke up and looked up to see that it was only Tai and Tay so she retied her top on without getting off the towel she was lying on and she looked over to see Tal was still facing away. She could only think of three reasons as to why he was doing that. Either he was a gentleman and upon seeing her nearly naked, turned around to give her privacy; or one of his certain body parts was involuntarily performing bloodbending on him and he was trying to hide it; or it was a combination of both. She was sure it was the last option. He was too far away to see anything in any detail and he appeared to have his hands folded in front of him. Either he was praying, or he was hiding something he didn't want the girls to see. Katara laughed on the inside about how her boyfriend must be feeling like seeing her topless and only being together for less than three days. "You can turn around now Tal! Or are you hiding something from me?" She flirted at him while he turned around but not before moving his hands from covering his privates to cover his eyes.

"Is it safe enough for me to open me eyes, princess?" He told her while she slowly walked towards him with her hand on her wide hips. "Or am I going to suffer an embarrassing case of natural bloodbending in my swim trunks, because it hasn't happened yet." Katara walked up to him and had to stand on her toes for her face to be as high as his. She held his hand to his eyes as she kissed him on the lips. Tal could hear his sisters giggle as Katara kissed him, and then she removed his hand from his eyes. He still kept his eyes shut as she then moved his hands to her waist. "Katara, is it safe for me to open my eyes, or am I dreaming that you are right in front of me and the only way you could show off any more skin was to be naked, you kissed me and are making me hold you by the waist. On second thought, let me keep dreaming because I _really_ like this dream." She kissed him again, only this time it was much longer, and the twins were laughing hysterically now.

"Open your eyes, handsome," she told him as she broke their kiss. "You need to be able to see if you are going to learn how to swim today." He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. She was gorgeous! She had to be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Of course he really never had seen many pretty girls back at home so he really did not have any examples to compare Katara too. But he really did not care because she had to be way better than any other girl in the world. And she was dating him!

She finally broke him out of the trance she had put him in and she led him and his sisters down to the one beach on the island. The one beach that faced the city. The four of them laid towels on the beach and then as Katara was about to start explaining the main aspect of how a person can find their natural buoyancy point and could float on top of the water, when the three other sprinted to the water and dove right in. Katara had been tricked, they knew how to swim. They were out far enough that they had to tread water to float and they were swimming like the three of them had been born in the water. "You three tricked me!" She yelled at them as she rushed in to water and dove in as well.

Tal was the farthest out and had to yelled for her to hear him. "It's too hot to train today, Katara! We learned to swim back at home. We just need to wear special thermal dry suits to keep warm while swimming in the lakes!" He dived under the water and surfaced 30 seconds later much closer to Katara. "We trained all morning today until we were soaked with sweat while you slept in. Me and my sisters deserve a break, and they betted 10 Yuans with me that you try to look all cool if you thought that we couldn't swim and you are an expert swimmer." He was now very close to her. She let him put a hand on her shoulder as the two of them floating a dozen or so yard off from the beach. Tai and Tay were already beginning to swim back to shore. "Besides, I just wanted to see what kind of swim suit you would wear." She suddenly felt something move along her left shoulder, the one Tal did not have a hand on. She turned he head to see what it was when Tal suddenly under her, as she felt something move along her back this time. She then realized that the ties to her top had been loosened by him and he swam away from her with her bikini top in his hand. His head was above the water and her chest was below and he was a few yards away now so he couldn't see anything. Katara yelped when she realized her predicament and she wrapped her arms around her good sized chest. She was now only using her legs to keep afloat.

Tal whistled to his sisters who were now lying on their towels on the beach. They looked up to see their brother holding Katara's top in his hand as he waved it in the air above him like a flag. They burst into laughter as Katara swam over to him. She kept one arm still covering her breasts as she held the other out and pointed at Tal. He was smiling at her with that _I'm innocent_ look on his face. She then moved her hand in a strange motion and Tal yelped in pain and threw the top into the air as his hands went for his swim trunks. He looked down as his trunks and then looked up at her as she grabbed the floating top and dove under the water, coming back up once she had refastened her top on her. He looked at her with a look of surprise. She had bloodbent him to have a erection. Now she was laughing at him, all while Tai and Tay both laughed on the beach knowing full well what had just happened to their brother.

He had learned his lesson.

_A man show never try to trick a female bloodbender_.

* * *

**Ha Ha! Serves Tal right for doing that to his new girlfriend! **

**I hope that this chapter was more than worth the wait. I think the story needs a chater likethis every now and then to keep it from getting stale.**

**And thankyou to those who have favorited and/or are following this story in the last few days, even though I had not updated for a few days. **

**I would like however to ask that if you do like this story alot, to tell you friends about it! I read other stories here and other authors say that they will only keep updating their romance stories only if so many people read, favorite, follow, or review it. Those people ask for a dozen reviews a chapter? WTF! Now that's too much! But I do ask that of you have any questions, comments, complaints, or ideas or names you might like to suggest, please send me a message! **

**I kind of feel bad only seeing a 100 hits per chapter and only a few dozen viewers. I will keep updating but it the number begins to fall, the updates will begin to become much more dispersed, and not every other day.**


	19. PreMatch Date Night

**Well, here is another chapter. This is why I recently changed the rating of this story from T to M. This chapter is pretty much one big romance filler before I write the action packed Probending chapter.**

**Maybe this chapter will make the reviews begin to flood in. Maybe even more and more people will also favorite/follow it ws well.**

* * *

Chapter 19: Pre-Match Date Night

After the three girls had finished laughing at Tal's embarrassing situation, Katara swam back to shore using her water cyclone trick to land directly on her towel. She was completely dry and she laid down on the towel to tan again, only this time she laid on her back so her front could get the sun. Tal came out of the water a few minutes later after the effects of Katara's bloodbending trick finally wore off. He had still not much training in waterbending, so he dried off his way, by just lying on his towel and let the sun do all the work.

"Where in the world did you learn how to bloodbend?" he asked her as they all laid out in the sun to rest. "Did your mom teach you to do it and forget to tell you that it is illegal to use it for anything else but medical reasons."

"Yes Tal, she taught me it after teaching me to become a healer. I guess you never thought a woman bloodbending her boyfriend's privates is actually considered a medical reason, that's why women waterbenders end up having such large families. They can keep the marriage steamy for a lot longer than other women." She saw his face blush at the thought of what she had said.

"Okay, little miss sex expert," he told her. "That's a legit reason for bloodbending but remember this." He whispered the rest into her ear so his sisters couldn't listen. "I don't need you to bloodbend me to get me going. Just me think about you in that bikini is good enough for me. Especially since I got a little glimpse of your chest underwater before you covered up with your arms." Her faces turned pink from blushing after than little statement. He had seem her topless then.

The rest of the hot afternoon was spent with Katara teaching Tal, and Tay because she was a waterbender also, her skills of using waterbending to speed up her swimming. A hour into the lesson, and Tal was swimming twice as fast as he could before. Another hour in, and Katara was teaching him a trick on how to form a giant bubble of air around him so that he could just simply walk on the ocean floor. Tal, being an Avatar, using the very small amount of airbending he was taught by Korra to create a similar bubble of air solely around just his head. With that trick he was able to stay below the water for almost 10 minutes before he needed to resurface to replenish his air supply.

By late afternoon, Katara had taught them her cyclone trick and now that were jumping out of the water and flying many meters into the air via cyclone water jets. By dinner time, he and Tay were racing Katara around the island via waterbending assisted swimming. He had the advantage of not needing to surface for air as much as the two girls, but they were smaller and their swimsuits did not cause as much drag in the water as his trunks did. Tai, being the sole member of the group that could not waterbend, was forced to watch from the beach and watch the others swimming like torpedoes in the water. She did not mind that however, she just lay in the sun and soak up the power of the sun, the source of a firebender's power.

After a few races had taken place, Korra appeared on the beach and told everyone to come out of the water and get ready for dinner. The four teenagers got back to shore, dried off and went up the trail to the main house after putting some shorts and shirts over their swimsuits. They sat at the table with Korra's family and the Airbender families. Korra asked them how their swimming lessons went. Tal replied that they already knew how to swim, they just needed to learn how to swim better. They went onto eat dinner in relative quiet until Mako brought up the upcoming match between the two teams the next evening. He then mentioned to Korra how lovely she would look in a blizzard without her parka on. Korra, who still fully remembered the bet, reminded him how expensive the bill would be for two couples to eat a full 3 course meal at Kuang's.

Her mind wandered back to earlier that morning when she saw how well the Tree Line Three had taken care of their practice targets. But she remembered that the Fire Ferrets were last season's runner up, they only lost in the championship match. The team that had beat them had been a highly favored team all throughout the tournament, the Fire Ferrets were only talked about because of their skills as the only rookie team to make it into the tourney. Korra felt her fear of losing the bet diminish a bit when she remembered that Katara, Hiroshi, and Ru were a lot harder to knock out of the ring than three defenseless practice targets that did not attack at all. The match would be very even footed, either team could win it. Korra was taken out of her contemplation about the match when Mako mentioned to her that the weather forecast for the region near Tree Line called for temps to fall well below freezing, and snow would be falling in about 5 inches every night for the next 3 weeks.

Katara and Tal, considering that they were the captains of two teams about to compete against each other, both sat down at the table next to each other, like the match was still months away. After the two of them finished their meals, they both excused themselves from the table and went outside. As soon as they had left the room, Katara grabbed Tal's hand was and pulling him along through the maze of hallways that made up the main building of the temple. She took him outside and left him to a very secluded spot in the orchard part of the temple's garden. It was a spot where the only light they saw was from the moon over head and the only way in or out of the spot was to crawl through a large hole that was in one of the many trees, bushes, and shrubs that surrounded the spot. No one could see in and they couldn't see out. They were all along and no one would be able to find them for hours.

"I've been using this spot as my own private getaway ever since I was 6," Katara told him as she removed a piece of flat plywood that covered the hole in the tree and crawled through. She told Tal to come in as well and he crawled in after her. "If I ever wanted to just keep away from my family or anyone else on this island, I came here. " She laid down on the ground and it was just enough room in the area for her to lay there and then she pulled Tal down to join her on the ground. "I bet that my mother, my brothers, and the airbender children know of this spot. But the airbenders say that they just use those gliders of theirs to fly up to the main tower to get away from the adults. Zuko and Sokka told me one time when they found me in here that they had another dozen or so spots to hide from mom and dad, so they gave this spot to me. Aang was the one to show me this spot when we were younger but he has also told me that he had another spot that he was personally saving for himself. I've heard him tell Jazzi about it one time when he first brought her over here to meet my parents."

She took his hand and then used her free open hand to point up through the canopy of the trees to point directly at the crescent moon that was right above them. "So," she spoke after a minute of silence between them. She turned onto her side to face Tal and he copied so he would be facing her. "After tonight, we become enemies for a day. The new Avatar dating the daughter of the other Avatar." She leaned in closer to him and kissed him yet again on the lips. "Maybe after tomorrow night, we can let the public find out." She tackled him and had him pinned to the ground as she remained lying on top on him. He didn't resist but was shocked by the sudden personal display of affection she was giving him. He was still stunned and she kissed him again, only longer and with a little more passion. "If the world knows that we are dating, then those stupid tabloids would stop pestering you with questions about any girls in your life." She then suddenly found herself on the opposite end of the embrace when Tal swiftly had the tables turned on her. She was now pinned to the ground and his face was only inch or so from her face, his arms were not restraining her arms, he was using his arms to hold her in a hug.

"So you would rather have the press pester us with questions about how well we _know_ each other, than let me take the brunt of the questions and we secretly date behind almost everyone's backs right in plain sight." He then kissed her and Katara could feel the passion in that kiss. She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, and rolled to have him lying again on the ground like before with her on top on him. "Anyway, why did you decide to date me, there has to be dozen of boys who you find more attractive than me, have more money than me, are smarter than me, don't have a thirst for revenge like me, and are not an Avatar who will have to leave you alone at home from anywhere like days to months while I have to travel the world and risk my life to keep the peace." More kissing insure and she felt his hand go from high on her back to much lower on her waist, but still far away enough from her rear end to not make her feel uncomfortable.

They broke for air after what seemed like a good minute of making out. Both of them were a little speechless. "Tal," she said breathlessly as she tried to come up with the right words to say. "Ever since I first meet you, you were not like other boys I know. Yes, there are some that look better, or are smarter, most are richer than you, and none of them are an Avatar and might have just been making advances at me just because of my looks or because my mom is an Avatar and my dad is the chief of police. You Tal, are way better than all of them because you don't use qualities like money or looks to your advantage and you never made a move at me." They both made out again and Katara felt his hands get a little lower on her back but she was beginning to really like that feeling.

"Okay, princess of all water and master of the art of bloodbending," Tal said he used a blast of airbending to lift them off the ground and drop them on their feet. They were now standing like a couple about to start slow dancing. Her arms around his neck, his hands far down on her back. "I will say that ever since I saw you that one night at dinner when your mom introduced me and my sisters to everyone and the only thing you seemed to care about was that we were a rival team, and not because I am an Avatar. You just saw me then as just another probender, not the savior of the world." They realized that they were covered in a layer of dirt, but he used another blast of air to remove all traces of it from their clothes and bodies.

They finally let go of each other and crawled back through the hole in the tree. They took a small side trail to end up on the main trail that went all around the island. They kept holding hands as they walked along in the evening air. They decided to soon go back to the others up in the main temple, they were probably starting to wonder what the two love struck teens might decide to do when all alone by themselves. They were halfway up the long series of stairs that cost Tal that one race against her and started their relationship. He was now beginning to think that the starts knew that he had to lose at all costs so that the two teens would end up dating each other.

They stopped to take a quick rest at one landing and look out at the open ocean. The moon was still high an made be only a crescent, but Katara felt as if it were a full moon. Waterbenders always felt much more alive during a full moon, but Katara was feeling very alive, maybe even more alive than with a full moon. Tal wrapped his arms around her and she found herself back in that same embrace that they ended in back at her secret spot. Their faces were yet again only a inch or so apart and their hands were back in the same places. Tal had to look down slightly at her and they kissed once more but it was much shorter than before. "Katara," he told her as they both continued to hold each other in that embrace. "This might just be you bloodbending my brain, or that punch drink we had at dinner had some cactus juice in it but I just want to tell you something very important. No matter what happens tomorrow night against our two teams, I just want to tell you that you are the most perfect girl on this planet and I love you." He gave her a quick kiss on her lips to seal his message to her.

She looked up at him and her big blue eyes that she got from her mother began to sparkle a bit, weather from tears or just the moonlight. She didn't say anything for what seemed to Tal like a hour, but then she suddenly kissed him which surprised him. Then she told him the four most wonderful words that she could tell him. "I love you too".

After that little declaration of their love for one another. They made out yet again but much short than the previous times. Katara's family and Tal's sisters were probably about to go and start looking for the two of them. They reluctantly let go of each other and went up the rest of the stairs to find everyone else had been in the middle of courtyard having after dinner conversations. They two lovers began to wonder if anyone had seen their little display of affection from only a few minutes before.

"Finally!" Mako said out loud as the two teens approached the group. "See dear," he said to Korra as she looked up from her drink to see her daughter still holding hands with Tal. "Your daughter did not run away from home on us and elope with your student and now pregnant." He joked with his wife who did not think anything at all about what her husband had just said. He had just got done only minutes earlier about what he was going to bring for food and drink to that picnic he and Korra were going to have with Tal and Katara the next week after the match. Korra told him not to count all the chickens before the eggs had hatched, but also reminded him what her favorite meal at Kuang's was. She also hinted and which wine they should have as well, which was also one of the most expensive the restaurant had. Everyone there was beginning to think that the bet between Tal and Katara was even better just because Korra and Mako kept telling what they thought would happen.

Korra knew exactly where the two teens had gone and what they were doing. She did have airbenders with their gliders on this island after all. She told one of Ikki's (Jinora's slightly younger sister) eldest daughters, who was Katara's age and also a good friend of Katara, to take to the air and keep an eye on the two teens. She came back twice from her little reconnaissance flights to report that Katara and Tal might have been making out with one another, but they were definitely both still fully clothed and did not do anything else but kiss and embrace each other a lot. They decided to call it a night and Tal, Tai, and Tay, left for the pier to catch the last ferry of the evening back the mainland. The three of them didn't say much on the ferry or the walk home, and as soon as they were in the door, they bidded each other good night and went to bed. They set their alarm clock to go off later in the morning so that the three of them could get a good night's sleep. Tai and Tay slept peacefully that night, both dreaming the same thing. What the two of them were going to do to Katara to get her knocked out of the ring while brother took care of their boyfriends for them. Tal on the other hand, was only able to dream about one thing, how had had spent the day with the girl of his dreams and how they both confessed their love for each other. He just prayed that his sisters weren't going to hurt Katara tomorrow during the match, because he sure didn't want to feel the fury of the two twin and Katara if Hiroshi and /or Ru got hurt because of him.

Tomorrow night was going to be interesting.

* * *

**Thankyou to those who have been reading this and fav/follow this story. Also many thanks to those who do actually leave any kind of review of this story. **

**Why do most of the stories on this site have to be romance stories? I like action too!**

******Is that chapter steamy enough for awhile? Because I do not write sex scenes!**

**This might be a surprise to many here, but I'm a guy! I hate romance only stories, I like the family centered ones and the aventure or action ones! I don't want to read stories that etch the idea of certain characters from our favorite tv shows or movies doing the nasty and that is all the story is about!**

**Now that my ranting ins over. I hope this little rant hasn't damaged your view of me or my story. There will be a few romance chapters in this to keep readers interested but soon I will be doin many more action chapters. **


	20. Fire Ferrets vs Tree Line Three

**This is going to be a bit of a long chapter, but it will be action packed.**

**I have tweaked the probending rules a bit, but since this story takes place 20-25 years after season 1, I hope nobody thinks against it.**

**I would also like to say that I'm sorry for the long rant at the end of the last chapter ans hope that I did not anger any readers out there.**

* * *

Chapter 20: Fire Ferrets vs. Tree Line Three (Pre-season)

Mornings were always Mako's favorite time to cook. Ever since his and Bolin's parents had died when that one firebender robbed and murdered than that one terrible night, Mako had to cook for him and Bolin. Breakfast was both brothers favorite meal. When he married Korra, they decided to live on the island, so sometimes it was hard when having to cook to separate kinds of courses every meal. One was with meat for him and his family, the other was the vegetarian meal that the Airbenders and Air Acolytes ate in accordance to their peaceful beliefs. Normally, the Air Acolytes would cook all the non-meat food and Mako would cook the meat so that the acolytes did not have to be forced to cook food that they believed was evil or something.

Mako was usually always the first up and out of bed in his family. Aang would be out soon as well, and little Zuko would wake up way before his twin brother Sokka. The three of them felt energized every time the sun rose in the morning because the sun was what gave firebenders their power. Just like the moon did to waterbenders. Half of the six member family were morning people, they were the firebenders. The rest of the family: Korra, Katara, and Sokka, were never morning people and they all thought that the morning is evil.

Mako could still remember the first time Korra told him her opinion of the morning. He and Bolin had her up and at the arena's gym practicing early the morning after their first match all together. Hasook, the Fire Ferret's old waterbender, decided to not show up for the match after performing in an earlier match. Korra filled in the spot for the team and they won. Despite the fact that Korra did not know much about the rules of probending. But she complained to them the next day about how early they were training. _"What's with the early training time? Don't you know, the morning is evil?"_

This morning, Mako was in the temple's kitchen scrambling eggs and frying bacon. The rest of everyone's breakfast was made by the Acolytes. When he was finished, he took the food out to the dining room and put the food down on the end of the table where his family ate. Meelo, one of the Airbender adults, gave him his daily copy of the city newspaper which he would get along with his own every morning by using his glider to quick fly across the bay, pick up a few copies of the news, and then fly right back. "You might want to read the front of the sports section before eating your breakfast Mako. " Meelo told him as he walked over to his seat at the table surrounded by his family.

Mako did just that, and he was thankful Meelo had told him not to eat. He would have choked on his eggs if he was eating when he read the front page of the probending portion of the sports section. Almost the whole page was taken up by two photos. One was the team picture of the Fire Ferrets, the other was the Tree Line Three, with their skull bandanas covering their faces. Printed on the top of the page was the title: _"Who Wins the Bet? Fire Ferrets Or The Walking Dead?"_. The article below the team photos told Mako that one of the council members, who had asked to stay anonymous, had told the press about Tal's and Katara's little bet.

That wasn't the part of the article that got Mako's blood boiling. The part that did was the one that showed Tal's individual picture next to Katara's with words: _"Avatar Korra's Daughter and Avatar Tal: Rivals?, Friends?, or Lovers?"_ This separate article was written by that one lady from the city's tabloid. The one that pestered Tal at the news conference. After reading that, Mako was mad, very mad. He however, was not made at Tal or Katara, he was made at whoever was the one that blabbed to the press about this. The two teens told them last night that they would left the press find out about it after the match. This article was a whole day early. Mako wanted to send that lady, and who ever blabbed, to jail for the rest of eternity. Korra would most likely agree and try to help him get back at whoever had done this. He showed Aang the paper, he read it out loud to Zuko, while both of them tried to eat their breakfast without choking on it because of the articles. "How do you think Katara and mom are going to take this?" Aang asked his father as he gave the paper back to his dad.

"Ask about what?" Katara asked the three of them as she, Korra, and Sokka finally entered the room to eat breakfast. Mako tossed her the paper and she read it, Korra ripped the paper from her daughter's hands to see if it was real. Korra then burned the paper into ash with firebending before she could feel calm enough to eat. For the rest of the day, Korra meditated so that she didn't lose her temper again. Mako and Aang went to the police headquarters and did their shifts. Zuko and Sokka, did whatever the two of them usually did, create chaos. And Katara spent the rest of the day over at the Sato Mansion going over strategy for evening with Ru and Hiroshi.

Mako did have one interesting point during his day. He was given a report by the chief of the city's fire department, that a large jet of flames was seen from the top of the building where Tal and his sisters lived. No fire alarms were triggered, and Mako figured that it was Tal finding out about the articles himself and disposing of his paper, his way. With a giant fire ball in the sky.

When evening came, the family went to the arena and entered the private viewing suite that Asami had bought years before for her and Korra's families to watch matches from. Ru's family was also invited to sit in the suite since their eldest son was on the Fire Ferrets now too. Katara, Hiroshi, and Ru went off to their respective locker rooms to prep for the match. Their match was the last of the evening, three others were to take place tonight before the Fire Ferrets took on The Walking Dead. The first two matches took awhile to decide a victor, but the third match, the one where the reigning champion took on some poor rookie team, that only lasted on round. Now it was time for the evening's final match.

The arena's ring announcer came out of his spot in the rings surface and the lights dimmed to reveal large spotlights shining down on him in the center of the ring , and one at each end of the ring. One end had the Fire Ferrets, the other spotlight showed the Tree Line Three on their end of the ring.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"The announcer yelled into the microphone he held in one of his hands. "For tonight's final match. In this corner, born and raised right here in Republic City! The team that one was made up of members of the second _Team Avatar_, and is now has two of their children on it! Your reigning runner-ups! The Future Industries Fire Ferrets! Katara, Hiroshi, and Ru!" He pointed in the direction of the Ferrets dressed in their trademarked red and white uniforms.

Almost all of the crowd cheered wildly, including everyone in the Sato suite. "And in this corner, from as far north as anyone can live! In a town now erased from the map by a despicable Equalist attack! The only known survivors, now nicknamed _The Walking Dead_! The Future Industries Tree Line Three! Tai, Tay, and their brother, Avatar Tal!" He pointed at the three teens fressed in black, green and white, with skull bandanas over their faces. This made the crowd cheer just as enthusiastically, but everyone in the suite only cheered mildly out of respect.

The main referee for the match motioned for the captain to approach the center of the ring. Tal and Katara both stepped forward to listen to the ref. The crowd erupted in cheering and some whistles and cat calls could be heard as well. "You both know the rules." The ref directed his instructions to both of them. The microphone was passed to him so everyone in the arena could hear his speech. The rules had changed slightly years ago but he still did his job and went over them one again. "No headshots, except with water. Unlimited bursts are allowed for fire, but no lightning. All water in the ring can be used at any time, no ice, no rocks in the water, and no bloodbending allowed period. All earth discs on either side are open game for the earthbenders."

He then turned to face Tal specifically. "Avatar Tal, you are only allowed to use earthbending. If you use any other element but earthbending, time will be called and you will ejected for the remainder of that round in the match. However, doing the motions of the other element to dodge your opponent's attack is allowed." He turned to face both captains once more. "If you two and your teams agree to the rules, shake hands and return to your sides of the center line." Tal and Katara shook hands but a few people from the crowd said that the two of them should kiss instead of just shake hands.

"I'll let you know Tal, that when we go out for dinner after this," Katara told Tal as they were about to get ready to start. "That I like, Water Tribe food, especially seaweed dumping soup."

"A hot soup will be the perfect appetizer." Tal through his bandana mask as he took his stance in zone one on his side of the ring. "Considering the fact that it will be 30 below zero outside where we'll be having that meal." Katara's face glowed pink for a second but cleared up when the ref was just about to start.

The ref blew the whistle and a bell sounded. The match had begun. Within a second or so, Tai and Tay were just behind the center line, blasting fire and water right at Katara. Tay threw water into Katara's face while Tai sent fire at her chest, the force of those two attacks pushed Katara deep into the Fire Ferrets' zone two. While this happened, Tal dropped back a few feet and began sending disc after disc flying from his side and into Ru's and Hiroshi's abdomens. Many of the discs were being destroyed by Ru's firebending before they could hit him. Hiroshi was doing the same as Ru, but with using his own discs to collide with the ones sent by Tal.

Ru managed to send a good blast of fire at Tal, who had to lean back to miss getting hit. But he forgot about Hiroshi for a second, and one of his discs hit Tal right in the chest. The force was strong enough to send him deep into zone two, one a few feet from zone three. The rest of the remaining time in the round was taken up with Tal sending any disc he could earthbend at Ru and Hiroshi, but he was so far back that they could dodge his attacks. Tai and Tay kept up their attacks, ditching the attack Katara only plan, and began to attack each other's boyfriends. They managed to send the boys back into zone two but Katara send them back into their own zone two with one of her water jet attacks.

Time had expired and the bell rang, round one was tied so a faceoff was needed to determine a winner for the round. Another rule change was demonstrated when Hiroshi was picked to represent the Fire Ferrets while Tai was picked for the Tree Line Three. No one but the six players in the ring knew that the round was going to be decided on a teenage couple who only started dating just over a week earlier. Hiroshi, taking well after his dad Bolin, was easily twice Tai's size and easily three times stronger. Earthbenders who had to settle tie breakers usually just tackled or pushed their opponents off the small center ring used for tie breakers. The two benders entered the small circle and it rose a meter into the air. When they were set, the ref blew the whistle. Hiroshi lunged right for Tai with his arms extended. It seemed he was going to just wrap her in a bear hug and win by simply holding her outside the circle. He didn't however, anticipate Tai's dodging speed as she merely stepped aside of him and pushed him off the platform with a well placed fire blast to the side. Hiroshi landed on the ground, well outside the small center ring. The Tree Line Three had won the first round. The crowd erupted into more cheers and the scoreboard lantern to signal the fire round turned blue to show that The Walking Dead had won the round.

Round two did not go well, for Tal. He stomped his foot on the ground only a yard in front of Katara, but still in his zone one. He was trying to make her flinch in anticipation of him sending a disc at her. She didn't take the bait and she sent a powerful blast of water right to his face and he was sent tumbling back into zone two. While that happened, Tai and Tay double teamed on her and just as she smiled at her success of sending her boyfriend to the ground, she was sent flying back into zone two as well. The rest of the round was just like the first round. Tai and Tay kept Ru and Hiroshi busy while Tal sent more and more discs at Katara, who just easily dodged them.

The round ended in another tie breaker. This time Ru and Tay were send to fight. Ru was larger than Tay but definitely not as big as Hiroshi was. When the ref's whistle blew, Ru fired a blast right into Tay, who was getting ready to send a water whip from the grate of water that surrounded them and marked the outer edge of each zone and the tie breaker ring. Tay flew off the platform and Ru took round two. The lantern scoreboard lit up red to signal that round two was won by the Fire Ferrets.

With the score tied at 1 to 1, a third round was needed to find a winner. Both teams reentered their zone one and the bell sounded to start. This round shaped up to be much different. Tal used his shield trick with the discs to block all attacks from the Fire Ferrets while Tai and Tay got behind it was well and began to send short attacks at the Ferrets from behind the shield. The new plan seemed to work until Ru and Katara got lucky and blasted both girls back all the way into zone three when they had to leave the safety of Tal's shield Hiroshi kept up his attack of sending everything he got at the shield. Discs began to break apart and Tal's shield was about to give way. He drew up enough power, and sent what was left of the shield flying into the Ferrets. Katara was just able to jump over the flying shield but the two boys got hit both in the legs and torsos and were sent back into their zone three.

Four of the six players were now well out of range of their opponents attacks. The only action left in the round until time expired was Tal being bashed all over by Katara's attacks. She was tiring out and her water blasts and whips were not as strong as earlier in the match. This lose in power allowed Tal to take the brunt of his girlfriend's weaker but never ending attacks. He couldn't even manage to get another disc into the air because he was always being hit with water from head to toe. The third round now had to be decided with a tie breaker and the crowd went crazy when Tal and Katara entered the center ring. Tal knew that although Katara was tired, she would be more than capable of sending enough of a blast to knock him out of the ring. All she needed a fraction of a second. He on the other hand, was not going to try and simply tackle her. He was going to use that split second chance he got to send one of the 7 discs in the ring right at her side and knock her out. This tie breaker was going to be a shootout. Whoever was quicker was going to win.

The whistle and bell sounded. It was like slow motion for him and Katara, but what the rest of the world saw was both benders dodging to their left and sending their attacks at each other's side. What the result was astounding. Tal sent a disc right into Katara's hip and sent her flying off the platform. But she somehow managed to use the last of her remaining strength to create one last powerful water blast right into Tal's face. While she was being hit in the hip, he got hit in the face, and both benders landing on the ground outside the center ring. And it was at exactly the same time or very close to the same time. Whenever something like that had happened , that round stayed a draw. The ref convened to discuss the matter while the crowd went crazy at first and then fell silent. Tal was the first to recover from his fall and walked over to Katara. He held out a hand to her, and she actually accepted his offer to help her up. Many in the silent crowed clapped respectfully at Tal's gesture. The refs ended their meeting and the main one grabbed both Katara's and Tal's arms and threw them up into the air.

The match would end in a draw. A rare but entirely possible conclusion. The only time that a decisive winner was needed was in the tourney. Pre-season and regular season matches could end with a draw. Neither the Fire Ferrets or the Tree Line Three had lost, but neither did they win. The crowd went wild again. The players all shook hands with each other and congratulated one another on a very good match. But the big surprise when Katara took of her helmet, and Tal removed his and the bandana that cover his fac. They embrace each other and in front of thousands of cheering fans, they kissed.

When that happened , the crowd cheered even louder than before and the place was jumping with excitement. The only people who were not cheering were Mako and Korra. All they could seem to do was watch their daughter kiss a boy in front of thousands of people. They looked at each other in confusion and asked each other the same question in unison to each other.

"So who wins the bet?"

* * *

**Yes, who does win the bet? LOL!**

**Thankyou as always to anyone who favs or follows and or leaves reviews. I don't receive as many reviews from people so I'll just assume that everyone likes the story so much that they just don't want to overloead my inbow with all those messages of loving this story. Ha Ha!**


	21. Master of Earthbending

**Another chapter down. I have no clue how many more I can write. But it's got to be a whole lot more chapters before I finish this story.**

* * *

Chapter 20: Master of Earthbending

That was it. After all the practice and anticipation, the match ends in a draw. Korra and Mako couldn't believe their eyes. They were sitting in a suite at the arena and everyone in the place except them, are going crazy watching their daughter kiss the new Avatar. The two parents were speechless and couldn't move. Not because of their daughter kissing Tal, but because the match was a draw. And if it was a draw, then who won the bet?

Bolin was the one to fix the issue. He looked over to see his brother and Korra looking all dumbfounded. Then he remembered that they had a bet going. He knew Tal and Katara were the ones that made the terms, but Mako was the one that suggested a bet. Korra was the one that made her own bet with Mako. Bolin looked back to the ring to see that the two kissing teens did stop kissing and did let go of one another. But not before all six benders received a standing ovation from the crowd before going back to the locker rooms. Bolin thought that Tal and his niece probably did not really care about that stupid bet. They appeared to look pretty darn content just being held by each other and kissing.

So Bolin did what h was always good at, making Mako suffer. And Korra was going to have to suffer alongside Mako because she played a part in it. Betting on their own daughter, and her boyfriend. He walked up behind Mako and Korra's seat and place a hand on their shoulders and poked his head between theirs. "You two remember that one time, many years ago. You know? The one time you two betted each other that Katara's first word was going to be mama or dada?" The two parents looked at Bolin with fear, they remembered that. "Good, you do remember! While you two were too busy arguing with each other while we were visiting Korra's parents down at the South Pole, I taught Katara how to say uncle."

"Oh no, Bolin." Mako said as he got out of his chair and faced his smirking brother. "No!"

"He's right , Bolin," Korra said, nearly mirroring her husband's moves and stare at Bolin. "There is no way that Mako and I are going to spend a hour outside at the South Pole only in our underwear during a blizzard. Both of us got a cold that lasted a month."

"Relax you two," Bolin replied as he put his arms around the two of them just like back in the day when they were teenagers. "Since it's a draw. Mako, you have to take Korra, Katara and Tal out to dinner at Kuang's for an evening. Afterwards, Korra has to come along with you and the two love birds up to Tree Line for that dinner in a blizzard which I heard from Hiroshi, who was told by Tai, that Tal was actually planning to have the dinner in an old cabin out in the words he and his dad used when they hunted for food. You will not need a parka out in the blizzard because you four will be inside during the blizzard. Tal was pulling everyone's leg." He let out a laugh as he watched Korra's and Mako's faces blush. Payback, although cruel at times, always seemed to feel so good at times.

Now Asami was out of her seat and walking up to see what her husband and her brother-in-law and sister-in-law were talking about. "Bolin sweetheart," She said to Bolin excitedly as she planted a good kiss on his lips. "After such a match, and not to mention Katara's and Tal's kiss, just think of all the publicity from this when it makes the morning news." She turned to Mako and Korra, "And I bet Kuang's would love to have you all dine there, maybe on the house, or at least with a little discount. This bet had helped raised the number of patrons it has seen out this month. As for the dinner up north, Hiroshi told me the same thing. You all will be eating inside next to a warm fire. You will not be outside in a 30 below white out." Asami was right, since it was a draw, why not do both of the ideas for the reward.

Zuko and Sokka, although it was hours since their bedtime, the two five year old twin boys rush down the halls to the locker rooms as soon as most of the crowd had exited the arena. They nearly sprinted down the hallways, reaching the door leading to the locker rooms and being told by a guard posted at the door to stop because they could not enter that part of the arena. They bugged the guard with stupid questions, such as why, until the adults finally arrived. The guard, recognizing Korra and Mako, let the group enter. In the hallway, they waited outside the doors which lead to the main men's and women's lockers rooms. Ten minutes later, Hiroshi and Ru came out, all freshly showered. But Tal was still inside. Ru's family and the Satos left to go home but the rest had to stay and wait for the others to finish cleaning up.

Soon Tai and Tay came out of the women's room all freshened up and not covered in sweat like they were after the match. Katara was supposedly taking her sweat time to shower and get changed to go back home. She had told the two girls to tell her family that she will be back home later, she never told them why though. Ru said that Tal was taking his sweet time in the showers because the water at the arena stayed very warm, not like the freezing cold showers back at the three teens' apartment.

During the wait, Zuko and Sokka finally crashed for the night and their parents had to carry them. Everyone was just about to leave for the night when Tal and Katara finally emerged from their locker rooms. And the two of them were holding hands again, but now they too were fighting a bit about who actually was the winner. Mako told them Bolin's idea to do both rewards, and then he told Katara that the dinner up in the woods was going to take place in a cabin. Katara slapped Tal in the back of the head but he just smiled at her and she couldn't stay angry after for long.

As soon as they had exited the arena, Katara and her family said goodnight to the three orphans and headed to the nearest ferry dock. Tal and his two sister began their short walk back to the apartment. Yet again, they wished each other a good night's sleep and went right to their rooms. Within ten minutes, the three had changed over into their sleeping attire and were out cold on their beds.

It was a good thing that they had scheduled with Korra that the three of them had their mornings after matches off to rest. But Tal's afternoon Avatar training lessons were still on, unless there was a match then evening. When he and his sisters finally arrived on the island after lunch back on the mainland, Korra asked the girls to go and teach Zuko and Sokka a few bending moves while she and Tal went and meditated. Tal forget it was their weekly day to go and meditate. Every afternoon always started off with him and occasionally Tai or Tay doing laps on the trail and doing pull-ups or sit-ups. After two hours of that, then Korra would teach Tal a certain element during that day.

Mondays was always Tal learning advanced earthbending moves like metalbending while the girls taught Korra's youngest sons bending. Zuko learned firebending from Tai and Sokka learned waterbending from Tay. The two boys had already mastered the basics from their mother and father but they wanted to learn more. Tuesdays, it was firebending from Korra with Tai. Wednesdays was airbending with Korra. Last week's lessons had him trying to get that those damn spinning gates of doom as he and Korra both called them. Thursdays was waterbending from Korra with Tay. Fridays was when most of the Tree Line Three's matches were scheduled so Friday was an off day. Saturday was meditation day with Korra. And Sundays was when the three teens either practiced their free running out on the rooftops of the buildings on the island, or went practiced non-bending combat with their collection of weapons from back in their apartment.

The two of them reached he meditation pavilion and went to their usual spot where Korra had been teaching him how to meditate for the last month. After the one time he was able to talk with Avatar Aang, he really had not much other success with it. It would take hours for him to finally connect to the Spirit World, Korra would have to wake him up in the Spirit World to talk to talk to Avatar Aang, and when they were finished, Korra had to go back to the real world first to snap him out of his trance. "I'm going to change things up for today Tal," she told him as the two of them took their usual spots on the floor of the gazebo. "I not only want you to connect to Avatar Aang, I want you to connect with Avatar Kyoshi as well. To make it easier for you to connect, let us just get Aang first and then ask for Avatar Kyoshi to joins us." He nodded in agreement and unlike Korra using the usual position for meditating, with the arms held at chest height and the fists touching, he rested his elbows on his thighs and held his head between his hands. Korra found him this position after the first time they meditated. His body involuntarily moved to that arrangement before he was able to enter the Spirit World. She waited two weeks before allowing him to start this way. It seemed to work because the time it took for him to enter the other realm was much shorter, although she still needed to wake him up in the Spirit World and back out in the real world.

Tal closed his eyes and did what he was trained, and within what to many in the real world would have called an hour, Tal woke up in the Spirit World. He felt cold and could hear echoing, like what he sensed when in that temple with all those statues of past Avatars. He opened his eyes, and he was there, he looked over to see Korra still with her eyes shut. But within another 5 minutes, she opened her eyes and saw Tal awake and standing in front of the statue of Avatar Kyoshi. She was the last Avatar from the Earth Kingdom and also the last female Avatar before Korra. Like Korra, Kyoshi was a fighter and also had to fight in a war. The women also had raised children, although Kyoshi also had a lifespan of over two centuries to raise a daughter. She was the longest living Avatar.

Korra got up off the ground and walked over to Tal. She was surprised, he actually woke up before her. Then they heard someone clapping their hands, the two of them turned around to see Aang clapping, while Kyoshi stood next to him. Tal remembered his old history lessons back when he was younger about that Kyoshi was a very tall and strong woman. That wasn't a lie, her spirit form in from of him attested to it, she was a whole to heads taller than him. "That has to be a new record Tal." Aang complemented to the boy as the four of them walked back to the center of the room and sat down to talk. "So Korra, why did I have to bring Avatar Kyoshi here with me this time?"

"Well," Korra told him. "I think it is a good time for Tal to meet her, maybe she can review his progress in mastering earthbending? Then I can concentrate more time on training him to get fire down quicker."

Kyoshi was feeling quite out of place. "Evaluate him? Isn't that the work of the White Lotus?"

"Avatar Kyoshi, the White Lotus has been split in to camp after I mastered the four elements. One side feels that they should control every aspect of the Avatar's life until they finish their training. It kind of feels weird when I learned three elements down at the South Pole and never heard about the Equalist movement. Or how about the fact that it had to be Aang's wife Katara telling me about all the crazy puberty stuff I was going to go through when I was 13, instead of my mom. The White Lotus controlled the Avatar, some of my teachers even tried to have me married off to one of their sons." Korra's face was beginning to turn red with anger and she screamed these crimes to Kyoshi. "Now we have two sects of the White Lotus, the old way, the control freak are all but gone for good, now the White Lotus is in charge of helping the Avatar and the security of the Avatar's family and friends, and the only Airbenders we have left in the world."

Kyoshi held up her hand to tell Korra to stop yelling. "Fine Korra, I will evaluate the boy. If he passes my test, he should be labeled as a earthbending master and you may then concentrate on helping him master fire next." She stood up and walked up to Tal who still sat on the ground. She gestured for him to stand and she placed her hand on top of his head. "Normally, to be considered a master of an element, one must be able to fight and defeat multiple enemies in a fight using only that one element, including at least one master of that element. But since you compete in that strange sport of probending using only earthbending, I will just simply look into your soul and determine if you are indeed ready."

The second she finished that sentence, her eyes suddenly started to glow and soon Tal's eyes were too. What he saw astounded him. He was all of a sudden in the middle of practice ring back on Air Temple Island, and there were metalbending cops all around him, including Bolin, the commander of that unit of the police. "Ready for your test Tal?" Taunted Bolin, whose eyes were glowing an eerie red. Kyoshi was going to make Tal fight and defeat a group of cops and Bolin. He assumed as starting stance and then they attacked.

The first two cops to advance at him were easy, he just made two pillars of stone shoot out the ground and smash into the attackers, sending them well out of the ring and landing outside unconscious. Another four then decided to attack and now he made another pillar shot up but this time he used earthbending to rip it apart and send chunks of rocks hurtling right at the cops' heads. Three were knocked out cold and fell to the ground. The fourth was a little harder, he blocked the Tal's shot but the teen responded with another chunk sent right for the cops' crotch. The cop doubled over in agony, and then Tal sent one last rock to the cops' face to get him. It hit hard enough that even the glowing red eyed Bolin flinched when he saw that.

Now another four stepped forward but instead of shooting rocks at Tal, they shot their metal cable at him. Now it had turned into a metalbending fight. He sprinted toward his enemies and ducked under the cables before they could contact him. He formed a pair of gauntlets of stone around his hands and forearms as he moved and was soon battering theses four with punches to the back to disable their cables and then to the gut or head to knock them out of the fight. After the last cop was put down with a gut wrenching hit to his face, all that was left for Tal to fight was Bolin. He was the earthbending master that Tal had to defeat to master the element of earth.

The two of them were still many yards apart. But this fight was not going to b done up close and personal. It was to be done with earth. Bolin began to move and began to send rocks at Tal. The teen used his trusty shield trick to protect him. But instead of using the earth discs, he just made a small wall of rock shoot out of the ground and he used bending to lift it very softly off the ground to make it float. He then advanced slowly at Bolin who continued to send attack after attack at the shield. Tal began to wish that he was allowed to use a wall like this when he was in the ring, it was holding up much better than the discs ever did. When he thought that he was close enough to finish it, Tal summoned all his remaining power to send the wall hurtling at Bolin at an incredible speed and with an unbelievable power. The wall hit Bolin before he even knew what was going on and it sent him flying out of the ring and into a nearby building. If the rules were the same as in probending, Tal had won.

He didn't even have any time to celebrate in the ring because his eyes stopped glowing and he was standing once again in the middle of that temple with all the statues and Avatar Kyoshi had her hand on top of his head. Her eyes stopped glowing as well and she looked down at Tal and took her hand off of his head and then held it out for him to shake. "Congratulations Tal!" She said with her commanding voice. "You are now a master earthbender. Oh, you don't need to worry about Bolin or his cops, it was never really them and nobody was hurt."

"Great job Tal!" Aang said as he too shook the teen's hand. He turned to Korra as Kyoshi soon disappeared into the shadows. "Excellent work on teaching Tal, Korra. This is why Myself and the other past Avatar's decide to let there be two Avatar's out in the world now. Training might now be able to be done much quicker." He gave her a hug and then disappeared in the shadows as well.

It felt as if only seconds after Avatar Aang disappeared, Tal woke up in the real world. Korra woke up too and they both got up. "I'm so proud of you Tal," she told him as she gave wrapped him up in one of her hugs where she pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him clear off the ground. This was her normal way of hugging people. Like Master Tenzin when he told her that she could stay on the island with him and his family after she had run away from that cursed White Lotus compound back down at the South Pole. Tal couldn't reply, the air in his lungs were being squeezed out of him.

Korra finally let him go after she heard something nearby. "Um mom, why are you hugging Tal?" It was Katara who was standing outside of the gazebo with Tai, Tay, Zuko, and Sokka.

"Tal mastered earthbending!"Korra screamed as she ran over to her children and put them in one of her hugs. But this one seemed a lot looser, none of her three present children at the moment were fighting to breathe. She finally let go of them as well and Katara rushed to Tal and hugged him.

"One element down," she said to him as she kissed him."Three to go. Maybe now we can have more alone time with one another, Mr. Avatar."

* * *

**Well, one element down, three to go. I got both an action chapter in and I got a little romance in it at the end as well.**

**Thank you as always to those who follow/fav this and thankyou to so much to those who have been leaving reviews as well.**

**Special thanks to lilyb12, you really like this story and leave a review for every chaper, and I thank you.**


	22. The New Equalists

**After so many chapters focusing on the main characters, I now have a back story the bad guys now.**

**We will also be meeting our orphaned teens heroes' parents in this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 22: The New Equalists

Nikolai was starting to really understand why the Equalists attacked Tree Line first and not the other town of Equality. a whole day journey by snow machine and a whole week journey by foot. Equality was the one town that was of similar size to Tree Line but his home of 20 years was closer to the North Pole than to Equality. Tree line was founded out on the wilderness about 20 years after Avatar Aang ended the Hundred Year War. Equality was founded much more recently, only about 25 years ago.

The reason the Equalists didn't attack Equality, was because they had already gain control of it. On maps, the town was called Wolfbat Falls for the nearby rapids on the river that it was situated on both sides with a single large bridge to cross the freezing cold river. In reality, the town was the stronghold of the Equalist movement. Nikolai would have fought that since he was an Equalist, he would have known about the town's real identity back when he and the love of his life, Anya, lived back in Republic City.

Ever since the apparent massacre at Tree Line, he had been stuck in a work camp outside of Equality. Every day he is taken to either to a nearby mine to dig out ore for the Equalist war machine, or taken to the forest to help clear cut it for wood to be used as fuel, lumber. The open expanses the clear cutting makes in the forest are turned into more work camps or into airfields or factories. All the work is done by prisoners, benders and non-benders alike.

_Three Months Before _

The day of the attack was a blur to Nikolai. He and Anya woke up and ate some breakfast before they were to go to the Tree Lines medical clinic and do their jobs as doctors. On the way out the door, the two of them passed by their three children's bedrooms. But they were unoccupied, their children were off on a little field trip. Their son, and two twin daughters were not to be coming back until the next school year started. The three teens had been gone for almost a month now, but they were still going to be on that trip for another 2 more months. Nikolai sometimes heard Anya crying t night in her sleep, she was really taking the absence of her children really hard.

They reached the clinic still in time to start their shift. The weather, although it was summer, the daily rain storms had turned all the ground into mud. The two of them were drenched when they went inside the clinic but felt better after changing into their dry work clothes. The two doctors had not even been at work for an hour when the attack was begun.

At first, the power went out. Everyone figured that it was just the heavy rain causing it,. The backup generators were supposed to come on seconds after the failure, but they too didn't work. After five minutes, a explosion rock the town as the fuel depot just outside of town, exploded. That was when the two doctors knew something was wrong. Being the responsible doctors that they were, the two of rushed to check on their patients they were seeing. Nikolai, latest patient was a young adult male who was complaining of being light headed and felt sick to his stomach. He had to have gotten the flu, he claimed to have been outside a lot the last couple of days, even though the rains had been quite bad.

Nikolai went back to the examination room where the man was, but what he found was not good. The man claiming to be sick had shed his large parka to reveal an Equalist uniform. Nikolai easily recognized it, he and Anya had once worn such uniforms too. The man accused the doctor of being a traitor, which was true. A fight broke out in the small room, but this stranger quickly got control of the fight and managed to subdue the middle aged doctor. He was bound at his wrists and escorted out side to see that Anya had also been captured, by a female Equalist. The rest of the towns inhabitants were either fighting back or had been also captured. Out in the main square, being drenched in the rain, were a good thousand prisoners.

The two doctors were lead past the other prisoners and taken to the small building that served at the town hall. They were lead inside and taken to the office of the mayor. But it was not the mayor they found sitting in the chair behind the desk. It was "The Doctor". One the floor in one of the corners, was the body of the waterbender mayor. He had been stabbed in the neck by one of the other two Equalists in the room. Nikolai and Anya recognized them at two of the teachers from the town's school. But they were not prisoners, they too were wearing Equalist uniforms.

"Well what do we have here?" The Doctor said as he got out of the mayor's desk chair. "It seems that you two have some explaining to do. You two didn't think that I would be dumb enough not to send a second team here with you two? You two were to do all the hard work of trying to monitor any increase in the number of benders here, while those two kept an eye on you and also your three children." He went over to Anya and hit her hard in the side of her head. "We went to your home, and your children were not there. Where are they?"

"Please Colonel Doctor," Anya pleaded to the man using his official rank. "Mal, Mai, and May are not benders! How could you do all this to these innocent people? We have served you faithfully for all these years and you are accusing us of treason?"

"Quiet you stupid woman!" Scream the female equalist teacher as she walked up to Anya and slapped her in the face. "We know that your children are really benders! And we also know that their names are really Tal, Tai, Tay! Now tell us where they are or you will suffer!" She hit her again and Anya was now crying. Nikolai wanted to help defend and comfort his wife, but he was helpless as his hands were still tied behind his back.

"That's not all that you to have been keeping from me." The Doctor told them as he stood between the two restrained prisoners. "I have also been told that your son Tal, is not only an earthbender, but just last month when he turned 17, he accidently firebended as well." He pointed over to his other two agents, the fake teachers. "These two _loyal_ agents to the Equalist cause have been spying on you and your family one night through the one window you forget to close the blinds on. They saw Tal nearly start your house on fire when he was trying to blow out the candles on his cake." He went back to the desk and sat back don in the chair.

"At first, I didn't believe the report. There is only one person in the world who can bend more than one element and she is prancing around Republic City like she and her little family owns the place!" He pointed back at the two fake teachers again. "But those two over there swore on their lives that Tal had bent two elements!" He slammed his fist down onto the desk. "Two of my agents have not only betrayed me and raised benders. But their firstborn son is an Avatar! If you will not tell us where your children are, especially your Avatar son. I will have the people of this town taken out into the woods and killed!"

There was a minute of silence that was only broken with Anya's crying. Then she snapped and spoke. "The woods! We have friends who live on a lake out in the woods. The children are there! But please, don't hurt them or the people of this town! We live in true _equality_ here. Benders and non-bender here live and work together. If an issue arises, it is solved quickly and peacefully. Those who won't follow our equality law are jailed. You can't just kill an entire town because I gave birth to three wonderful children. They might be benders, but they would never use their powers to oppress non-benders."

"She is telling the truth," He said with guilt. Nikolai knew that his wife was really using the emergency plan they had created for such a situation. She told their captors, that the kids were at the family's hunting cabin. But they were really at the North Pole safe and far from here. "They are at our family's hunting cabin." He wondered how long the ruse would last. "We told you that the children there, now will you please spare the town? This is not their fight. Take us instead, these people deserve to be left alone, not caught in you delusional dream of a world without benders."

The Equalists did not take their request. Nikolai and Anya were taken back outside and put in the back of a truck. The others were being separated into three groups. Male nonbenders, female nonbenders, and benders; both man, woman, and child. Then they too were also put into the back of other trucks. The town itself was empty and left standing. But the same fate could not be said for its former inhabitants. The nonbenders were forces to watch in terror at the Equalist took the town's 5,000 or so benders into a large clearing in the forest which was being cut down. logs were already being put into large piles and then doused with fuel. Benders were being lead to an surrounded by these many piles of fuel soaked logs. When all of them were tightly packed inside, the signal was made to ignite the logs.

The people in the fire scream for help, but none was coming. The many fires turned into one massive fire. Tall charred timbers fell onto them and began to burn the people alive. Those who did not die from the fire, died from the fumes. Within a long agonizing hour, the thousands of screams went silent. The bender population of Tree Line had been massacred.

The nonbenders were then driven down south on the one passable road to Wolfbat Falls, only to discover that the town was really Equality, the home to the Equalists. Men were sent to one part of the work camp outside of town. The women were put in the other part, separated from the men by a lone barbed wire fence. Over the next week, the nonbender women were given jobs as slaves in the town to the loyal Equalists families that lived there in lush lifestyles. The nonbender men, a quite more sizable group than the women, were made to log, mine or do factory work for 12 hours a day, in two shifts. One shift slept while the other worked. They were going to help build up the Equalist war machine, whether they wanted to or not.

_The Present Day_

This cycle of work went on for Nikolai for about a good two months until one day, instead of going out to work. Those who refused to work either had their small rations of food taken away until they were starved into submission, or some were just plain hung t the gallows in the center of the camp. Nikolai was restrained and taken to the main building of the camp. He had been also blindfolded to prevent him from knowing exactly where he was inside that building, but he was sure that he had managed to be able to retrace the route if he could escape. He was placed in a small room and another prisoner but he did not know who it was until the two of them had their blindfolds removed. Nikolai was sitting at a table directly across from Anya. This would have been a wonderful reunion for the husband and wife, but The Doctor was also seated at the table, in between his two prisoners.

A number of photos were placed before the two by Equalist agents who were also in the room with them. What Nikolai and Anya saw in those pictures terrified them. The Equalists had managed to find their children. The three of them were in Republic City and were now probenders. One picture was the three of them in their uniforms. Another was of Tal demonstrating his ability to bend all four elements. With the location of their children know, the two of them were new useless to the Equalists as prisoners. But what really made them worried about their fates was the most recent picture. It was from the main newspaper from Republic City, dated from a few days before. It was of Tal embracing a girl in the middle of the probending arena. Their daughters were in the picture too, holding the hands of the two male members of the other team. The title of the article that went with the picture read: _Avatar Tal Dating Avatar Korra's Daughter, Katara_.

"Well, well, well," The Doctor said as he picked up his own copy of the article and began to read it out loud. "It seems your children are not at your family's cabin or in hiding after all. They have been in Republic city for almost three months now!" He slammed his fist on the table. "And to make things worse, your son Tal, really is an Avatar! That bitch you call Avatar Korra confirmed that he is her successor, even though she is still alive and kicking! She says here that the world has been giving two Avatars to help better deal with its problems." He was laughing a bit. "But your son has not only just been doing his _Avatar Training_, he and you excuses for daughters are now also probenders! And to cap it all off, Tal is dating Avatar Korra's daughter too!" He signaled for the guard to taken off the two prisoners' restraints.

He then walked over to the door and ordered the guards out. "Because I am a just and fair leader," he told them. "I will give you two an hour to spend in each other's company here in private before I have you taken to the gallows and tell all your fellow prisoners why they are here. It will feel good to get all that guilt off your chests. You two should be thankful. I'll have you killed right there so that the others can kill you themselves because you are the reason why your home was destroyed." He then walked out and locked the door.

Nikolai had Anya crying in his arms within seconds of hearing the door shut. He kissed her forehead and tried to calm her down. The two of them probably had only a few more hours to live. "I'm just happy to see that you and the kids are safe." She managed to say to him through all her sobs. "I know we did the right thing hiding them from these monsters. I just can't believed that killed all those people. Many of them were or friends."

"It will be alright my love," Nikolai told her as he tried to wipe away her tears and look into her pretty face. "Tal, is really an Avatar! He and the girls are more than ready to stop these people. Plus, they still have Avatar Korra to help them." He had to take a few seconds to think about what he was going to say next. "It's all my fault, we should have just disappeared from there after we found out Tal could bend. We could have moved to the North Pole, we could have changed our identities. Hell, I should have made us all move back to the capital and we could have lived a new life there."

"No my darling," she told him. "It's both our faults, we should have just told the town about the Equalists and have them help us. But now we are going to be made into scapegoats. That monster is right, the other prisoners will have killed us by this time tomorrow. We will die soon, but at least we will die knowing that our children will help put a stop to this. Tal is an Avatar! Our son is _Avatar Tal_! You saw the pictures, our babies are making a name for themselves and not using their powers for evil. They are using them to make enough ends meat to get by in life." Her sobbing was beginning to stop but her eyes were still tearing up.

"I love you Anya, and I love our children," he told her as he kissed her on the lips. "At least our children seemed to have found love there too. Did you see that picture, our son is dating Korra's daughter. And Tai and Tay must be dating those two boys. All of them looked so happy in that picture. Maybe even though we are going to die, at least we might one day have grandchildren."

"I can't believe they grew up so fast. One day I'm finding out all three of my babies are benders, now they are living on their own and finding love. I just wish that we could be there to see it."

"If we do die today my love, we will see it, from our new lives up there in the heavens. Maybe the rest of town is up there too? We can say were are sorry for what has happened. Maybe they will forgive us even though those here still alive may not."

The two of them spend the rest of the hour still in each other's arms. They kissed every now and then. They worried about how they were going to be hung. They laughed at the idea that the Equalists were going to be in a very shape after Tal goes _Avatar Mode_ on their rear ends. The hour they were given ended and they were restrained once more and lead outside to the gallows. The Doctor had all the other prisoners put into formation. He then went on to say that it was the two traitors up on the stage with him that were the reason that Tree Line was gone and they were now prisoners. He told all of them about the three teens. Their lives as probenders, Tal being hailed as an Avatar, the three teens dating while the rest of Tree Line was dead or imprisoned.

Some did indeed blame them for the massacre, but others shouted out that it was the right thing to do, but that was only a very small few. Nikolai and Anya had then nooses place around their necks. They were told if they wanted to say any last words before they were hung.

They replied out loud in unison, "Long live Tree Line and long live the Avatars!" They had barely finished their oaths when the trap doors below them were opened and they dropped down into the holes. The two of them died instantly, but their cries did not stop. Soon many of the other prisoners were echoing the phrase.

"Long live Tree Line and long live the Avatars!"

* * *

**Now that was a bit of a dark chapter, the next few will be reverting back Tal and his sisters.**

**Also, many thanks to hose who are still favoriting or following this story. Also much thanks to those who are leaving reviews.**


	23. Tea Solves Everything

**I got a cute little iler chapter here to lighten the mode after what happened in chapter 22.**

**I have read a couple stories here about the female characters of storys always seem to experience PMS at least one in some stories. **

**I though that it would be funny to write about it, even though I'm a guy. But hey, my sister makes me suffer too when she has her issues once a month.**

* * *

Chapter 23: Tea Solves Everything

Katara woke up early the day after Tal mastered earthbending. But she was just like her mother, they despised the morning. They believed that the morning is evil, and this morning Katara was sure was evil. It was still a hour or so until sunrise and she was wide away. There now full moon or new moon the night before so she had not been feeling the energy given off by the moon that makes waterbenders feel twice as powerful. No, not this morning. Katara felt like trash, and she knew exactly why.

Although she knew why she was feeling ill, Katara still had her mind drift back to the evening before. She walked up to the meditation pavilion to find her boyfriend being hugged, in a non romantic way thank the spirits, by her mother. She asks what was going on, and finds out her boyfriend has now been deemed a master of his natural element, earth. She remembered being hugged with her two little brothers then by her mom. Katara remembered going to Tal and kissing him and telling him something about how he should be able to spend more _alone time_ with her.

Well, the rest of the evening did not get them much in the way for her to be alone with him. She guessed that after that little personal display of affection with Tal right in the middle of the probending arena in front of thousands of cheering onlookers, her parents decided to keep a much better eye on her activities with the new Avatar. Dinner was not so bad. They only made the two teens sit more apart at the table. During the last few meals before, she and Tal nearly had their sides touching one another when they sat down on the cushions that lined the table.

After dinner it was worse. When the two of them had finished their meals, they excused themselves from the table. She told her parents that they were going to go for a walk down the trails. They went outside, down the stairs and were barely a few dozen meters into their little walk, when she looked back to see that her own parents had _decided_ to go for a walk down the very same trail. Katara knew it, they were being watched. Her own parents now didn't trust her to be alone with Tal all because the two of them kissed in public once. Tal could feel how she was feeling so they changed their pan and took the next set of stairs they found back up to the temple. Her parents didn't follow them but the two lovers still knew that they were being watched.

She decided to give him a more personalized tour of her home instead. They would be inside and even though they would still be watched, the two of them could still a little fun. She showed him the library, the music room, the green houses, the smelly flying bison stables. She showed him her own pet polar bear dog, Kenai. An 10 year old offspring, of her mother's now late first best friend/pet, Naga.

Katara would usually not let strangers go anywhere new Kenai, she was very protective of Katara and would usually scare off anyone but her and her family. But since Katara and Tal had now together for now not even a week, she felt as if her pet should know that Tal wasn't a snack. What Kenai did to Tal surprised her, her polar bear dog didn't ever growl at him, she just licked him in the face. She only did that to Katara.

After meeting Kenai, they then went to see the music room, the workshops where furniture and other things were made or fixed. They went to see the chaotic mess that was Zuko's and Sokka's bedroom. Aang's room was a mess at the moment too but he was inside trying to clean it up, he was muttering something that sounded like Jazzi had seen the mess. Then she showed him her room, the large but clean room that really didn't seem so girly except for the vanity in one corner with a bunch of beauty products on it that Katara never used that much, and her closet overflowing with clothes, both girly and tomboyish.

She really didn't even show him much about her room other than her bed which had a whole bunch of stuff animals on it. She had a small record collection of music of the most popular songs since her parents were born, mostly jazz. But the one thing she really wanted to show him, other than the great view her room offered of the probending arena, and therefore also his apartment, was the outfit she was planning to wear when they were going to Kuang's later that week for dinner with her parents.

She walked into her closet and came out a few seconds later holding up a hanger with a very cute dress that would show off almost all her curves and had a really short skirt. Katara saw his expression of when he looked at it told him that if he thought it was amazing just by itself, he would go crazy when he saw her in it. He told her that she should also wear it when they go up north to the cabin as well. That comment made Katara shiver a bit at the thought of being in the cold showing off so much skin. But it also made both of them laugh. After a good night kiss from her, left her in her room and met up with the twins down by the ferry to go home. When they got home, it was another night of just the three of them falling asleep on top of their beds without even changing into their sleepwear.

But that was last night, now Katara felt as if her gut was either going to explode or implode on her at random intervals. She just lay on her bed and screamed for her mom. Korra showed up minutes later, groggy as hell and a bit crappy too. Katara told her how she felt and her mother stopped from being angry at her daughter for waking her up so early. Now Korra was trying to help soothe her daughter's pain with some waterbending healing. Both knew the real cause of the discomfort but they had run out of the only good thing to use to quell the pain. The tea leaves needed to make that special recipe of tea had all been used up the last time this kind of illness befell on the island. One of Katara's airbending cousins had it earlier this week.

Korra thought of going to the market to quick get some more leave but it was Sunday morning and the market would be closed until at least noon. That was more than 8 hours away. Ru's family tea shop would open sooner but they would be swamped with the morning rush of customers who always frequented the shop. That would also take hours. Katara, knowing that her condition would be discovered by her friend/team mate, shot down that idea to her mother. The only other possible place who could also have some of these leaves available was at Tal's place, his sisters used them when needed as well.

No Katara was getting mad. Her pain was beginning to control her feelings too. She just told her mom not to worry and she changed into her most comfortable street clothes, which looked somewhat like what her mother wore when she was Katara's age, and jogged down to the pier to catch a ferry to the mainland. She almost threw up over the railing on the way over, and she was beginning to run a fever too. Her stomach stopped aching when she reached dry ground but the rest of her body was really beginning to hurt. She was forced to walk the rest of the way to Tal's apartment and up all those stairs that he carried her up and down during their first date. When she reached the door, she took a moment to collect her breath and her courage and knocked.

Katara was fearing that Tal would answer the door, but it was Tai. She didn't look like herself either. Her hair was all messed up and her eyes had bags under them. She looked just how Katara felt. "Sorry Katara, but Tal is out practicing his evasion and stealth techniques this morning." Tai was barely able to say as she moaned in pain and grabbed her waist. "But by the looks of it, you were hoping to see us and not him." She let her visitor in and the two girls went to the kitchen to find Tay cooking a teapot on the stove. She too looked like a mess.

"Let me guess," Tay said to Katara as she took the teapot off the stove and placed it on a trivet on the table, and took out some cups. "The three of us all get our _Monthly Gift from Mother Nature_ on the same day." The tea was poured out into the cup and the girls drank three cup each of the tea before speaking another word. Soon they were feeling the effects of the tea take root and they began to feel much more like themselves once more. That even had the whole day still, the sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon out in the east. Katara, after drink another cup, finally decided to see why Tal would be up training so early already considering that all four of them had been up late the night before.

"Well, he heard me to into the bathroom about an hour ago." Tai told her with a bit of a smile now. "I start swearing out loud and he gets up to see what was wrong. He knocks on the door and I tell him to go away or I was going to rip his head off. Tay then come out of her room and yells at the two of us to shut up or she was going to kill both of us. I get out of the bathroom and I find Tal looking over at the calendar we go posted by the front door. He looks at the date and within five minutes he was changed and out on the rooftops trying to get away from here before we held true to our promises of hurting him." The three girls laughed at the thought of how Tal handles two sisters during their _Hell_ _Week_ as their mother had called it.

For the next hour and a half, the three of them talked about other girly things like now ideas for clothes, possibly going out to go shopping together sometime, drinking tea at Ru's shop and watch him suffer behind the counter. Katara was beginning to see Tai and Tay more like her best friends than just the sisters of her boyfriend. There weren't many other girls her age to hand around with. All the women Katara could list were: her mom Korra, her aunt Asami, Aang's girlfriend Jazzi, her 14 year old nonbender cousin Mara, and the six or so airbender girls who of which only two were around her age but never really had time to hang around with her. Tai and Tay however, could be her best friends, they were always on the island because they trained there with Tal. By the time Tal finally returned from his morning escape, he returned to find the three girls sitting on the couch laughing loudly as they looked through a photo album that was normally lying on the coffee table.

"Uh, what are you doing here Katara?" He asked her as he placed the satchel he had taken with him earlier on the table in the kitchen. She just placed her hands on her abdomen and acted out that she was in pain. He understood her answer and opened the bag to take out his own remedy for such a situation. He took out the wrapped parcel of those special tea leaves and placed it on the table as he then took out three little boxes of chocolate and gave him to the girls. "Chocolate for my two sisters, and also my one love who each have to suffer so badly from their _Monthly Visitor_ all on the same day." He sat down on the couch next to Katara and spoke into her ear. "I was going to give you those later but I guess since you are here, and not felling so well, I might as well just give you them now." She kissed him on the cheek and began to open her gift as Tai and Tay were already eating away at their gifts.

"You even got us more tea leaves," Katara said as she ate the first chocolate she could get her fingers on. It was filled with caramel so it took her a bit to chew it and swallow before she could ask him something. "Exactly where did you get those leaves from? The only good reason to but that species is for dulling PMS symptoms. It must be kind of embarrassing for a guy to walk into a tea shop and ask for some of that stuff."

Tal was smiling. "Well if you must know, I got it from Ru's family's shop." Katara nearly gagged on her third piece of chocolate from hearing this. She didn't want Ru finding out about the girls' little _issue_ they get every month. Ru's mother took care of those orders that needed those tea leaves. Ru would be just too embarrassed to fill such an order, especially if t was for her or Tal's sisters.

"Now before you three go all freaking out on me thinking that Ru found out. He wasn't there this morning. His mom was the only one behind the counter today. She said he and his dad had to go and check on how their other store on the far side of town was doing." This made the girls calm down, but they soon were all feeling a bit iffy again so they brewed another pot of the special tea. Tal, seeing that training today would be useless because of the girls' condition, decided to brew his own pot of the other kind of tea they had in the apartment, the energy boost one. He didn't need much of it so he only took a cup of water and put one tea bag in it. He then just sat down on the couch next to Katara again and began to heat the water in the cup using firebending.

The rest of that day was spent by the four of them lazily paging through the family photo albums of Tal, Tai and Tay. There were a number of albums to go through. One set were kept out in the open back home up in Tree Line, where the three kids had different names and were supposedly nonbenders. The other set was the ones their parents made which were hidden from view but showed the children again from newborns to teenagers, complete with all their achievements, and bending skills. Some of the pictures were duplicates and appeared in both versions but the nonbender versions had a few staged photos to show them practicing with weapons or their chi-blocking techniques.

Another thing the four of them did that day was what Katara found out to be a very neat way for her to let go of some of her stress. Up on the rooftop porch, the three orphans had been collecting old tea saucers which were cracked but still useful for one purpose, target practice. Tal would use his now mastery of earthbending to send the terra cotta tea plates up into the air and over the part of Yue Bay which the apartment was next too. Katara, Tai, and Tay would then use either firebending or use waterbending with water from a nearby barrel on the porch which collected rain water. Tal would occasionally join in the fun of blasting the plats to bits and watch the debris fall harmlessly into the bay. He was now able to send good sized blasts of fire from his hands or feet. He even managed to send a few plates to a watery grave with a few small blast of airbending as well.

The pile of around a hundred old plates began to dwindle to one a down or so over time. But it was well worth it as the girls finally found a good way to channel out some of their anger on something rather than out at Tal. He remembered the first time he suffered at the hands of his sister when they first experienced the discomfort of their cycle. Tal asked Tai why she wasn't her normal upright self one day and she nearly burns him alive with her firebending. He remembered then why this could happen sometimes to women, his dad had given him _the talk_ a few months before when they were out at the cabin hunting for meat. Tai and Tay had booth been moody that day and their mother had to give them the talk as well later that day after Tal and his father left to run some conveniently timed errands around town.

He laughed to himself about that memory as Katara blasted the last plate they had left into tiny little fragments which were now falling into Yue Bay like brown snow. It was nearly supper time so Katara thanked them for the tea and the good time they all had together that day, and then left to catch the next ferry out to Air Temple Island. While on the ferry, she began to see Tai and Tay like they were now good friends. She had even already planned for the three of them to go out shopping the next Sunday.

She also began to see Tal for another one of his good traits, he cared about the women in his life greatly. He went to a tea shop to get something that most men would be afraid to ask for and he had even bought the three girls chocolate to help feel better. Katara considered herself lucky to have decided to go and try to start a relationship with the young male Avatar. He wasn't the greatest looking guy in the world, but she didn't cared about his looks or even that he was an Avatar. She just saw him for being a guy who did what was needed to be done to survive in this world and help keep the peace.

So what if the tabloids were now trying to print stories about the two teen lovers. Some were just innocent stories about how cute the couple were, other talked about how Katara was trying to influence the new Avatar with her looks. Others claimed that Tal was only dating the rather tomboyish Katara only because she was Avatar Korra's daughter. Some stories even suggested that her parents were arranging it for her to get married off to him. One writer even had the courage to write that Katara and Tal had a one night stand and he was only staying with her because she was pregnant with his child. That last story made her laugh, but she didn't care about what the papers were saying, she loved Tal for who he was and he loved her.

* * *

**Well, there you go, hopefully a nice little chapter to keep the mood happy.**

**Thankyou again to all those who fav/follow this story after every chapter is published.**

**And also many thanks to those who have been leaving me review. I want to thank you all for letting me feel so good about my writing. I usually get a lot of negative feedback from people who would edit my research papers for college saying that I have too many "Thats'" in my writing.**


	24. Dinner with the Parents: Part 1

**Well time again for anothe update. Sorry about the delay. I had a little trouble getting the converstions to work in a way I would like.**

* * *

Chapter 24: Dinner with the Parents: Part 1

Back up in Tree Line, it was said when a girl invited her boyfriend to a dinner with her parents, that was when a relationship was really started. Any other dating before a boy having dinner with his possible future in-laws was considered only to be innocent fun between a boy and girl. As long as that fun didn't end with the girl ending up being with child a few weeks later. That dinner with a girl's parents was a make or break situation for a guy. If the parents did not like the boy, he might as well just break up with the girl right there on the spot and save the two of them the trouble.

Tal loved Katara, not just because she was beautiful, but also smart, and independent. he was listing off a whole bunch of other qualities in his head as he changed into the nice three piece suit that Katara had picked out for him to were to dinner at Kuang's. He had to go out to Republic City's main mall when Katara went out with his sisters. She picked it out for him, but he paid for it with almost all of his share of the winnings for tying the Fire Ferrets in the match. It was much less Yuan, than if they had won, but all six players had to be paid evenly for a match that ended in a tie.

Now it was the evening of Tal's dinner at Kuang's with Katara and her parents. He was looking at himself in a large mirror that was in his room. He had to admit it to himself now, Katara was right, he did look good in a black suit coat, black trousers, brown boots, a white shirt, a red tie, a blue vest under the coat, and a green sash wrapped around his waist over the coat. Colors that symbolized each of the elements, and he did look good in all those colors because he was an Avatar. He finished making sure he looked good for his date and her parents and then left the apartment and made his way over to the ferry to Air Temple Island to meet up with Katara and her very well known parents. They were already at the dock when the ferry made it to the island so he didn't have to go all the way up the long stair, through the large courtyard, and up to their house.

Mako had on his dress uniform from the police that he commanded. He looked like an older version of his son Aang. Normally, he would be wearing a red trimmed peaked hat to show that he was the Chief of Police, but he was exercising his authority at the moment by not wearing it tonight. No one was going to call him out on it. Korra and Katara were wearing long overcoats over whatever dresses the two women were wearing. Either Mako did not want his wife and daughter to get chilly while outside on a warm but comfortable evening, or he saw what Korra was allowing their daughter to wear out on this date with Tal. The young Avatar assumed that Korra was wearing a conservative dress under her coat, she was the one in the spotlight all the time because until last week, the world had known her to be the only Avatar. She had to dress modest and had to dress like a role model for all women. When the three of them joined Tal on the ferry, he noticed that Katara looked really uncomfortable, she had to be warm wearing that coat on a night like this when it was warm.

He greeted Mako and Korra while Katara gave him her version of a greeting by kissing him quick on the cheek. He saw Korra smile at her daughter's little sign of affection, but Mako was starting to look a little annoyed at his daughter. Korra nudged him in the side and he calmed down. Tal could hear him muttering something to his wife as he offered his arm for her to hold on to as they approached the railing of the ferry where Tal and Katara at . Katara mirrored her mother as she wrapped her arms around Tal's left arm which he had offered to her. Korra made sure that she and Mako didn't get too close to the young couple, but Tal knew that the two adults still had their eyes on him and their only daughter.

But at least they were far away enough to be able to have a private conversation between the two of them. "Are you sure you are going to be okay tonight?" he asked her. "You didn't have a lighter coat in that closet of yours to keep your dad happy?"

"This was the only jacket that was long enough to go all the way down to my knees," she hissed at him, slightly annoyed. "You should have seen the fit he had earlier when my mom made me show him what I was going to wear tonight." She giggled a bit. "Just you wait until me and my mom go to the coat check-in at the restaurant. I might be showing off a lot of skin but my mom has on her favorite dress. My dad might have seen her in it a hundred times, but he still will have a hard time keeping an eye on us because he will be too busy keeping an eye on her."

"So your mom is helping us out tonight?" He took a quick glace over at his fellow Avatar to see her trying to keep Mako occupied by constantly kissing him. "I thought that since she is an Avatar, she needs to look more conservative so that people like her for her job as Avatar and not because of her looks." Another quick look at Korra, to check that Mako was occupied. and he sure was. "I don't think your dad would like to see the press having a field day tomorrow if someone manages to get a picture of you and your mom in those dresses."

"Oh don't worry about the press, sweetie," she told him using her second pet name for him. She would usually use Mr. Avatar-of-the-North-Woods. "Everyone is going to be at the arena because it's the season opener tonight." She pointed at the brightly lit arena off in the distance. "The reigning champion, the Ember Island Dragons, which I will tell you are stupid arrogant jerks who barely beat us last year, are playing tonight so all the press will be there. Kuang's I have been told, is technically "closed" for the evening. They sent a bunch of their staff home tonight because there would not be a lot of business tonight. We are going to be the only ones there. My dad has the press thinking that our little dinner bet is going to be held tomorrow. We will have to do a quick photo shoot tomorrow evening there. And both me and my mom will be wearing much more modest dresses."

So the real dinner was tonight, while a fake would be held tomorrow for the press. "Well, I can see you go your smarts from both your parents, princess," he told her, also using his favorite pet name for her as he kissed her on a cheek. He leaned in close to speak into one of her ears. "Just when I thought I couldn't begin to love you more, you show me more and more reasons." That list he had in his head was beginning to get very long indeed.

"I might have inherited my tactical genius from both dad," she said, ending with a kiss to him on the lips. "And I might have gotten my nose, ears, and hair color from him too. But remember that I got my _best_ and most _appealing_ traits from my mother." She was beginning to flirt with him now. "My mom had many boys dreaming about her back in the day not just because she was an Avatar. Even though she wore bindings around her chest under all her tops, her chest was a magnet for boys, and..."

Tal had to stop her there. "Please don't tell me stuff like that about your mother, he said to his date a bit embarrassed. "But I do thank her for blessing you with that certain trait. You might usually always wear bindings or a sports bra under your shirt, which makes them appear slightly smaller. But remember this, I have seen you up close without any of that stuff on, actually I saw you once almost wearing nothing at all. And I will admit it, I was really enjoying the view there for that short second." Now he was the one flirting. She was a little taken back by what he told her, but she was more than able to get back at him for it.

"Well, Mr. Avatar-of-the-North-Woods," she said to him as she stretched out one of her arms and made a gesture that made Tal have to fight back a yelp as he felt and invisible force grabbed a rather sensitive part of his body. Katara had her hands hidden from her parents views so they didn't see their daughter bloodbend her boyfriend. "Next time, maybe you and me can have a little more fun if we ever manage to be all alone on the beach one day." She glanced over to see that her mom was still keeping her dad busy with kisses. "Away from the prying eyes of my family and your sisters." He had to fight back another yelp as she finally release him from her bloodbending grip.

Tal was thankful that Mako and Korra didn't see that little incident. He luckily didn't need to hide anything from the eyes of his girlfriend or her parents. Katara was at least kind enough to not make him have an embarrassing feeling in his pants for a while. But as the ferry finally reached the mainland, she did whisper that he better keep his privates in check, because she was sure that he was going to go crazy when she finally was able to take off her warm overcoat.

Katara turned out to be right about them being the only people at Kuang's that evening. A sign on the front door said it was closed but Mako let them around to the back service entrance. It turned out that he had only helped stop a bender gang from trying to influence the workers at Kuang's about protection from _certain unfortunate accidents_. Mako put an end to it and had never old Korra about it. The Chief of Police had actually been given a special guest status by the thankful owner. He usually paid for his visits to the place in full, even though he could have gotten a free meal ever now and then. And it was because of his graciousness that the owner was more than willing to put Tal's and Katara dinner tab on the house while Mako would pay fully for his and Korra's evening. The same would be held true the evening after as well during their _official_ dinner while the press watched.

Korra was surprised that Mako had kept this hidden from her. But she was more than ready to make him pay for it. The four of them were taken through the kitchen, out into the main dining room by one of the waiters. He took the women over to the coat room while Mako and Tal stood around by their table waiting for their dates to return. The two men were rendered speechless when Korra and Katara returned. Both women's dresses had no shoulders, only straps. Both dresses hugged their bodies perfectly. Katara's dress was much shorter, ending just below what would be considered racy. Korra's dress was much longer but Tal could swear heard Mako snicker a bit when he saw Korra in her favorite dress, which was also the firebender's favorite too. The sides of Korra's dress were open to show off her legs.

Tal however, wasn't paying any attention to his fellow Avatar. He was too busy looking at Katara as she walked over to him and took a seat when he pull out a chair for her and helped her sit down at the table. Mako did the same for Korra. They were soon being waited on by the few workers that decided to stay at work for the evening although, the rest had taken the rest of the night off. The legal drinking age in Republic city was 17, so Tal was offered a glass of wine but he declined because Katara still couldn't drink with him because she didn't turn 17 until late in the year during winter.

They were given a choice of soup or salad. Tal and Katara both took the salad. Mako and Korra must have had enough with the vegetarian diet back on Air Temple Island, they both went with the soup. They were then served a dinner of roast duck and a good selection of sides. As they ate, Mako and Korra began to have a conversation with Tal on how he felt about only tying with Fire Ferrets. "You know Tal," Mako said after he finished swallowing a bite of the duck. "I thought that you and your sisters were going beat my daughter, nephew, and their little friend. Me and Korra here are quite surprised you could only tie with them. She told me that you three had even picked targets. You didn't want to fight against Katara one on one. Obviously that plan failed when you two had to duke it out in that last tie breaker. But somehow you both tie even during that!" He looked like he was proud that his little girl had fared so well against an Avatar.

"Well Chief," Tal said as he finished his meal and took a good sip from his glass of water. "I didn't want to be the one who would accidently hurt Katara. I decided that if I never directly attacked her and never knocked her out of the ring, she couldn't be mad at me later for it and cause us to break up." He then pointed a finger at her as she sat in her seat to his right while he continued to look her father right in the eyes directly across the small four person table. Korra sat to Mako's right and was across from her daughter, which also made her sit to Tal's left. "Besides Chief, if I had hit her hard enough with any of those discs, she might be all bruised up and not be wearing such a pretty little dress."

He was joking, but he had said it to the one man who might be crazy enough to throw the young Avatar into jail for life. Mako surprised everyone by just laughing. "You sure have a way with tactics and words don't you boy." The chief said as he continued to laugh at the teen's joke. Korra giggled a bit and Katara could only stay quiet and blush. She thought about what if he really did go at her in the match right from the beginning. Hiroshi and Ru both had nice big bruises that evening from Tal's attacks. She would have surely been wearing a longer dress if she had received any bruises from her boyfriend. But she still loved him enough that she wouldn't have dumped him just because he might knock her out of the ring. She would sure have been mad but she knew that he had no other way to win against them when they fought again later in the season.

The evening played on like other evenings before. Some more small talk. They would pay for their meals and then walk back to the ferry. Tal and Katara would be arm in arm on the trip back to the island. They would go up the stairs, across the courtyard, and up to her front porch. She kissed him on the lips to say goodbye and he would then go home.

The next morning, after waking up from another short night's sleep. Tal and the twins went to the island like always to practice probending in the morning. Katara went to the Sato mansion to practice with her teammates and returned in the afternoon to find her mother teaching Tal and Tay firebending. Tay was much better with the basics than Tal, but Tal was a quick learner. He was really showing improvement from when he first arrived in the city. By 4 in the afternoon, Tai and Tay went back to the mainland to get ready for their own dates, who were taking them dancing at a concert close to the Sato mansion. Tal stay on the island and changed into his outfit from the previous night. He had taken it with him that morning. He showered and changed over in the boy's dorms. At 5, he was standing back on that front porch, now with a blue carnation in one hand for his love.

Katara and her parents came outside a few minutes later. Mako wearing his same outfit as well, but Korra was wearing a Water Tribe dress similar to the one she would wear to council meetings. Katara wore a much more modest dress that could have been used at a high school dance. It was blue like her eyes. She kissed him on the lips to thank him for the carnation he put on her wrist. "Who wants to go and eat at Kuang's tonight?" Mako joked to them as they made their way to the pier for the ferry. "It's not like we have eaten there in a while!" Everyone laughed loudly at that as they boarded the ferry.

This evening, Kuang's was vastly different than what it was like the night before. Although, a plethora of probending teams were playing just down the road at the arena, there was a big crowd eating at Kuang's. Many parties were outside, seated at outdoor wine garden, as they awaited to be seated for their meals. A few reporters were outside as well, most of them were interviewing some of the celebrities from the new motion pictures, or a famous probender. But when Mako and Korra approached the restaurant with Tal and Katara in tow, all the reporters hurried over to take pictures of the two couples.

The real dinner with Katara and her parents might have been long over, but Tal felt even more nervous now. He now had to act like this dinner was the real deal, and there was bound to be hundreds of question thrown at him. Both about tonight, and what exactly was the plan about the other part of the deal. The part where he was going to have dinner with Katara up in a remote part of the taiga with just each other for company...and warmth.

* * *

**So as you can guess, the next chapter will be this dinner with the press.**

**Anyway, thankyou to those who continue to fav/follow this story just recently. Even after I have now posted 24 chapters. Better late then never.**

**Also thankyou to those who are still reading this and loving every word of it. My visitor/hit counter is peaking around 200 hits and about 50 visitors per a chapter. Not as much as other stories, but I'll still take it that you all love this story.**

**And last but not least, thankyou to those who have been leving all the reviews, I can't thank you all enough.**


	25. Dinner with the Parents: Part 2

**Well, it has been a few days since my last update, but I finally managed to write a chapter I hope everyone will love. I even broke my record of longest chapter yet!**

**Hopefully, this will also begin to draw in other readers as well, especially since the second half of this chapter gets a little steamy. Ha Ha!**

* * *

Chapter 25: Dinner with the Parents: Part 2

It was only about 6 in the afternoon. The sun was still just above the horizon over the nearby mountains. The crowd there shouldn't have been that packed. It was actually never really packed. That was one of Kuang's best qualities, there were never that many people there, the wait for a table was nonexistent and there was always enough privacy. Tal suspected that most of the people were there to be seen mingling with the two Avatars. So naturally, if all these people are in one place at one time, the press would gather like sharks.

The press might be a tough opponent for most people, but they were still no match for Chief Mako. He warned the reporters that the evening was for him and his wife having dinner alongside Tal and Katara. The press were to stay outside and not bother them, any employees, or any other of the restaurant's guest this evening. And breach of that or any eavesdropping on them this evening would be dealt with severely. The next few minutes played out just like the previous evening. The women had not worn overcoats this time, so the four of them went straight to the same table, sat in the same spots and ate the same meals.

They were greeted by people from the nearby tables, all of whom seemed to have been celebs, famous probenders, or just rich. Tal could swear that he had to have shaken the hands of at least a few dozen people as he sat there waiting for his meal. Mako wasn't so pleased with all their visitors but Korra told to keep calm, but be ready to fry anyone who might try to influence Tal for a certain reason. Katara, the only person at the table who could not firebender to any degree, just kept her cool, she was however pleased that her date was handling all the attention and not becoming too nervous.

Now Tal was beginning to feel less nervous now, after all the people around him had greeted him and told him how they looked forward to seeing him succeed as an Avatar. However, just before their meals arrived, A fellow patron walked over to them and introduce himself. Mako and Korra recognized him as Dao Wang, the nonbender owner and editor of the city's main newspaper. He asked the chief and the older Avatar if it would be okay if after dinner was finished, if he could possibly personally interview Tal. He told them that if the paper published a interview with Tal, who would have the other three of them next to him so he wouldn't be alone during the interview, the public could have a more accurate view of the new Avatar. He also told him that Tal had the freedom to not answer certain questions he didn't like, and Mako and Korra would be given a draft of the story to check first before the paper published the story.

Korra told the man that she had no problem with it as long as Tal was up to doing it. Mako approved only after getting a guarantee that he would see a draft before it was printed. Tal agreed to do it, but asked that the interview be held in a more private setting, not there in the packed restaurant. Tal and the man shook hands to seal the deal and the man shook Mako's hand as well, apologizing for interrupting their evening before he returned to his own table to eat.

Dinner played out much like it had the night before. During the course of their meals, they managed to do some small talk. Mostly it was about Tal's progress in his Avatar training, how both he and Katara felt about the other teams in the league, and how Tal's sisters were liking being with Hiroshi and Ru. Katara even told Tal about some of her ideas about what they should do the next time they go out on a date in the city. Visit the park, see the museums, visit the Sato mansion, watch other probending matches to gather info on the other teams.

With dinner now over, Tal and Katara were allowed to go out into a outdoor porch to get some fresh air as Mako and Korra sat at a nearby table out on the porch. The man who owned the newspaper would be doing the interview, he had to excuse himself to go back to his Satomobile to get a pad of paper to take notes and a tape recorder to record the interview. He arrived minutes later and took a seat at the table the four of them had sat at. Before he started the recorder, he told his guests that he was going to do a quick introduction so it could be possibly played on the radio's news station after the story was published.

"This is Dao Wang," he spoke loud enough into the air after pressing the record button on his recorder. "I am at the renowned Kuang's Restaurant her in Republic City and with me this evening are Avatar Korra, her husband Chief of Police Mako. Alongside them are their lovely daughter Katara, the waterbenders and captain of the Future Industries Fire Ferrets. And last but not least, the talk of the town, quite possibly the world now, a teenage boy who has been blessed by the spirits as a second Avatar for the world, Avatar Tal." Tal said hello in his usual tone as if he was indeed greeting the audience that might be hearing this interview one day.

Dao's questions covered all the bases. Tal's age, his birthday, if he had a surname or not. Dao asked him questions about Tree Line, and also mentioned that the paper, the radio network, and the motion picture studio, were each going to be giving donations to the fund that was set up to raise enough money to build a memorial near the town. Mr. Wang then asked the teen about his family, mainly his parents, previous articles had already covered the Avatar's sisters, but never got much their parents.

Tal got right to the point. His dad's name was Nikolai, his mom was Anya. He never had any other known family but his parents and sisters. He described his parents to all of them, and told them their ages. Confirmed that they were once in league with the Equalists but became double agents after he was born and discovered he could earthbend. Tal described his own personal childhood, he did not tell much about his sisters' lives, mentioning that he respected their privacy. His own childhood was different that most people in the world. He had to fake being a nonbender. He could never show even his closest friends, if he even had any friends, his bending powers. He enjoyed spending time away from schoolwork and housework by practicing earthbending in secret in the freezing basement of his family's house.

After taking down a good three pages of notes, Mr. Wang began to ask Tal about the day that he was introduced to the world as the next Avatar. He asked Tal about his impression of the press, at which he was indeed annoyed with at certain times. Dao asked about the dinner that he had with Korra's family and the council. Dao let it slip that it was in fact a council member that had told the paper about Tal's and Katara's little bet on their match against each other. Wang told them that most of his employees, had put their money on Tal and his sisters winning the match because Tal was an Avatar. Most of the paper's employees wanted to see what exactly Tal meant by a dinner in a blizzard without a parka. The teen answered that it meant that he and Katara would have dinner in his family's old cabin so the two of them would not need to wear parkas, even though there would most likely be a blizzard outside. This got a few chuckles out of Wang as he then changed the subject to Tal's remark to a council member about him never having the time for pursuing a relationship.

When Mr. Wang had asked this, Tal who was holding one of Katara's hands under the table, felt her tighten her grip of his hand nearly to the point of pain. He gave the man his same answer. He never had the time because he and his sisters were always practicing their bending or Equalist training secretly. There really were not that many girls around his age back in school, a nearly absurd 5 to 1 guy to girl ratio. Almost all girls were taken or had been already put in some stupid arranged marriage. And because Tal was supposedly a nonbender, he was considered not as useful to the town as a water or firebender. He told Wang about the need to keep the above ground oil, water, and sewer pipelines thawed or risk a blow and a big smelly mess. That joke got everyone laughing, Wang loved it, he said he was certainly going to have to add it one into the paper's comedy section.

A few more questions about Tal's progress in his Avatar training, Korra answered for Tal. Then came the really embarrassing part for the 17 year old boy, questions about relationship with Katara. Not only did Dao Wang ask, Katara's parents were well within arm reach of Tal if did go say something that they did not like. The owner of the newspaper knew better than to ask very personal questions about the teen couple, especially with the girl's parents there and definitely not a chief of police and an Avatar for parents. Dao Wang asked them because he wanted his readers to know the truth about the couple. He had heard all the rumors from the city's independent tabloid.

Seeing that it would improve the image of their relationship to the public, and with a nod of approval from Katara, Tal answered the questions. They started dating a few weeks back. They never did anything stupid. There was no arranged marriage, and Katara was not pregnant. With the truth now out, Dao Wang thanked them all for allowing him to interview Tal. He told the chief to expect a draft of the story on his desk by tomorrow afternoon. If Mako okayed it by evening, the paper could have it published in the next day's morning edition. It was only 8 in the evening when they had finished. Dao Wang, bid everyone a pleasant evening and then left to go home. He was very eager to begin writing his article and wanted to finish well before the deadline so the chief could okay it for printing.

The two couples managed to leave the restaurant without much fuss, only a few members of other papers had managed to stay. Most of them had left after finding out that Dao Wang was interviewing the new Avatar. Some more people approached Tal to shake his free hand. Katara was holding onto his left so his right arm was free to greet people. The four of them were then finally able to begin their walk back to the pier. Only a few people they passed by as they walked even pay any amount of attention to the two couples.

The ferry was ready to leave at Korra's or Mako's word, but Katara told them that she and Tal were going to go walk around Republic City Park for a while because the evening was still young. Mako didn't like the idea of having the two of them alone walking through the city's biggest park during the evening. Hell, he didn't like the it even it was the middle of the day. We wanted to say no but Korra came up from behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Korra whispered into his ear what Katara thought to be the words, "It will be just the two of us at the house tonight." Katara them remembered that Aang was out on patrol for the night. She was with Tal, and Zuko and Sokka were at the Sato mansion being watched over by their aunt and uncle for the night.

Mako, not being one to spoil a nice quiet night alone with his beautiful wife, allowed Tal up to midnight to have Katara back on their front porch. He wouldn't be waiting for them, because of Korra, but he was sure going to have an Air Acolyte stay up to make sure the teens arrived on time. Katara hugged her parents quick. Korra warned her by whispering into her daughter's ear that although the two of them probably knew what the adults were going to be doing, the teens were not to even think of doing it. All while the two women talked, Tal and Mako had a stare down, the chief gave one of his _I'm watching you_ gestures with his eyes and hand. Tal just smiled at the man.

When the women were done, Katara walked back over to Tal who gave her his left arm and she went back to wrapping her arms around it like before. They wad goodnight to Mako and Korra who then boarded the ferry and began to sail back to Air Temple Island. Tal began to lead Katara to the park when she stopped him, she began to lead him back to his apartment. "I thought you wanted to take a stroll through the park?" He asked her as he tried to stop her.

"I only told them that so they would leave." She said. "We're going back to your place. Your sisters won't be back for hours still and like my parents, we will have the whole place to ourselves." She was beginning to flirt again. "Besides, it's been like days since the last time we made out like crazy. You know why made mom choose tonight for that dinner?" He could only shrug his shoulders, he really didn't know.

"Look up," she told him as she pointed at the moon as it began to make its way across the evening sky. "It's a full moon tonight. Waterbenders all over the world are going to be restless and full of energy all night. Especially teen girls who haven't made out with their boyfriends in days."

"And what if I was to refuse?" He asked jokingly.

"Well, since it's a full moon," she told him playfully. "You don't exactly have a choice in the matter do you?" She made a gesture with her hand which Tal knew all too well. He yelped in shock but she didn't really bloodbend his privates this time. She was really playing with him now.

But he had been working on how to get back at her for this. "We since it's a full moon, two can play that game." He then took his right arm and began to make gestures in the arm as well. Katara yelped now as she felt as if something was touching the inside of her thigh.

"How on earth did you do that?" She asked as she began to like the feeling of someone moving their hands along the inside of her thigh. "Not that I'm really complaining." She had to concentrate harder on walking as he continued to lead her now back to his place and bloodbend her now.

"I've been reading a few pages about blood bending here and there every now and then." He said as he made a new gesture with his hand. "I might be new to bloodbending and you might be one of those special few people who can bloodbending without a full moon. But tonight I have enough power to play your little game." They reached the front door of the old apartment building and she hopping on his back and he carried her like he did on their first date. When they had gotten inside the apartment itself, no one else was alone.

Tal laid Katara down on the couch as he went to the windows that looked out over the bay. She took off her pair of heels, which were killing her feet, and he took off his boots and sock because he felt more comfortable with his bare feet touching the wood floor. He then took off his sash, coat, vest and tie. Leaving him in only his trousers and tie shirt. He shut the blinds and then metalbended the light switch to turn off the electric lights. Katara then saw him firebend to simultaneously light the over 3 dozen candles that were placed in the main room.

He then went into the kitchen and came back out with a bottle containing some leechi juice, Katara's favorite. He poured the two of them each a glass and then sat on the couch as she snuggled up him. "Well aren't you a romantic one?" She said as she wiped off the lipstick of her lips began to kiss him. She didn't want to leave behind any evidence of her plan on him. He quick a nearby alarm clock on the end table to go off before 10:45 to make sure the two of them had plenty of time to get back to the island. He had about two hours with her before they would have to leave to get her back home.

Soon Katara was really showing just how much extra power she was getting from the full moon. She was beginning to kiss him with much more passion and for longer too. She pushed him over so that he was now lying on his back on the couch and she sprawled out on top of him. It was a good five minutes of them just kissing before they finally changed things up. Tal decided to play with her a bit and resorted back doing his new bloodbending trick on her legs. She began to really enjoy that and kept kissing him.

There arms were pretty much all over each other and soon were beginning to get very close to certain area. Her little aggression was driving him insane. Katara felt as if she was lying over a hot bed of coals, she was now seating profusely and it had nothing to do with the warm evening air. Then her body got in control of her mind and told her to go even farther but not too much more.

She went right for Tal's belt and nearly ripped his trousers off and his beater so he now just laid there in only a pair of black boxer briefs. "Seeing as I helped you get undressed." She told him playfully. "How about you be a gentlemen and help a lady get out of her dress." She watch his eyebrows raise on his face as he tried to contemplate what she just said to him.

_Did she just tell me to help her take off her dress?_

"For spirit's sake Tal!" She begged him as she grabbed his hand and put them up to the zipper on the back of her dress. "My parents warned us specifically, no sex. They didn't say anything about going all the way to second base! I'm wearing underwear under this damn dress!" This more modest dress she was wearing was much harder to get in and out of when compared to the one she had wore the previous night. All she needed to do with that other dress was grab the hem of the dress's very short skirt and pull down. But the dress she was wearing now needed another person to help her with that cursed zipper.

"That full moon must have a really good effect on you, Princess," he said to her sweetly as his hands found the zipper and pulled it down from her shoulders to just about her butt. "But just so that I know for the future. What is the legal age of consent in Republic City?" He asked Katara as he pulled her dress off of her. Now it was just the two of them in a empty candle lit apartment. He was down to just his underwear and she was still on top on him kissing him frantically in just a bra and a thong.

"I think I get your hint there, Mr. Hormones," she told him breathlessly as she had to end one of their long kisses to get air. "We each have to be at least 18 to get married. But that doesn't mean you can't go and get me a pretty _and expensive_ Water Tribe Betrothal Necklace for my 17th birthday in a few months." He told her that he could probably make one before then, or somehow manage to talk to her mother into letting him give Katara her necklace she had gotten from Mako. She gave him a really long kiss after hearing that idea. "Let the world, and my parents accept the truth, we really were made for each other." More kissing and groping ensued.

For the next hour, the two of them just laid there on the couch in each other's arms in only their undergarments. They would keep kissing, telling each other how much they loved each other. An occasional bloodbending trick. Katara was really loving her boyfriend's new found talent, making her feel like she was going to go crazy from being felt down below her waist. But their time ended too soon as the alarm clock rang. They helped each other get dressed and made sure there were no evidence that could be seen by her parents about the two teens' little romantic evening.

He carried her down the stairs again, but this time bridal style. They made it to the ferry and had crossed the bay to Air Temple Island with plenty of time to spare. Time that was spent by the two of them figuring out their alibi for what they had done this evening. They went to the park, walk in it for a while, sat by the main fountain for a bit, then took a walk around the exterior of the arena and then took the ferry back.

He carried her up the stairs too, but back to his old way of her on his back. His arms were still sore from carrying her down the stairs back at his apartment bridal style. They walked together hand in hand across the courtyard and approached her house. She looked over to the window of her parents' bedroom to see that the window was shut, the lights were off and the blinds were down. Tal kissed Katara goodnight and told her that he and his sister should be back there before noon the next day.

The two of them knew that neither probending team would want to practice the morning after such a late night.

* * *

**Okay, after writing a chapter with that much romance in it , I need to take a long cold show after that!**

**As I said in the beginning of this chapter, now that there is a bit more romance in this story, maybe it will draw a lot more people to read this.**

**I would like to thank those who are still faving/following/reviewing this story. I just wished I knew how to write more realistic dialogue, then I would write a lot more and maybe begin work on that Sci-fi novel I always dreamed of writing!**

**I would also like to say now that at the end of next week, I will be unfortunately have to be away from my laptop for three weeks due to a military training thing I must do and I'm then vacationing up in Canada for a week right after that. So I will try to post a few more chapters, but then I cannot update for three weeks straight.**


	26. The New Way of Things

**Another new chapter! Sorry that it took so long, I had to write a better action scene.**

* * *

Chapter 26: The New Way of Things

Tal was tired by the time he return to the apartment. When he entered the place, he saw that Tai and Tay had their bedrooms doors locked shut again. Just like anytime they returned from their dates with Hiroshi and Ru. He took off his boots and did what he always did, he used that seismic sense technique to see that it each of his sisters were indeed the only occupants in their rooms. Tai was and fast asleep but Tay was tossing around in her bed, she was mumbling as well. Tay could not sleep, she was still feeling the effects of the full moon to because she was a waterbender. Just like how he and Katara were energized by the moon's power.

Any power that Tal was getting from the moon seemed to have worn off after his short night with Katara. It had only been a few weeks since Avatar Aang had unlocked his waterbending powers. Korra had told him that it would probably be a few more months of training before he would really begin to feel the power of the full moon, and not just the little extra boost of energy he had received tonight. Of course, that boost could have just been his hormones going crazy from what he and his girlfriend had been doing only a few hours before.

Something else also began to bug Tal. Now with the probending season beginning, he and his sisters had at least a match a week. Practices were to still be every morning with Korra on the island. But now his afternoon training sessions were now going to become more sporadic. Korra now only wanted to teach him firebending whenever they could get the chance with a now random schedule. The Tree Line Three had matches for any day of the week but Sunday, the one day the arena was closed.

He managed to fall asleep until being awoken abruptly by Tai and Tay running into his unlocked room and jumping onto his bed like the two of them were little children again. The two girls hopped up and down of him as they worked their twin powers again to pelt question after question at him about how his night with Katara was. What did you do? Did you love her outfit? Did you go dancing? What you do after dinner? Did you two really go to the park? Why does the living room smell like the candles were used? Did you two feel the power of the moon?...The questions seemed to keep coming at him.

All he could do was they did this was bury his head under a pillow and wait until they stopped. The girls did and he removed the pillow to find them now staring at him from the side of his bed. "Well?" They said together in unison. "Aren't you going to tell us?" He got up and was handed a cup of his favorite energy drink tea. He down it all in one drink and then decided to answer them before they really started to become really annoying.

"We went to Kuang's _again_ for dinner. There were a lot more people there this time though. The owner of the main newspaper interviewed me as the others watched. Then Korra and Mako went back home because the two of them were going to be the only ones at their place." He saw their eyes bulge at hearing that. They knew what the two adults had to have been doing the last evening. "I originally was planning to take Katara around the park but then she decided to pretty much drag me back here." He asked for another cup of tea and downed it as well when Tai refilled his cup.

"I just lit the candles and we drank leechi juice together as we both made out on the couch." He looked at them both right in the eyes. His face was turning red. They began to giggle at the idea of their new best friend making out on their couch with their brother. "We did not do anything else but that, okay? And what exactly did you two do on your dates last night?" Tay made a motion with her hands and Tal scream in terror and shielded his privates with his hands. His waterbender sister was going to do what Katara did to him. But Tay didn't, she and Tai just laughed at their brother's response. "You have been bloodbent by your girlfriend way too much." Tay said to him as poured him yet another cup of the energy tea. He took time to actually savor this cup and drank it much more slowly.

They three of them made their way over to Air Temple Island just after lunch and Korra coached Tal and Tai on firebending during her teaching plan for that Wednesday, beginner lightning generation. Korra continued this series of lessons the whole week. Katara practiced waterbending with Tay so that the two of them didn't feel left out. The waterbender sister of Avatar Tal, and the waterbender girlfriend of him knew that the faster that he and Tai mastered firebending, the quicker Tal could start airbending training. Tai was just being taught alongside so that she could master firebending as well. Tay and Katara would almost be ready to take their waterbending tests by the time Tal had begun to concentrate on just the element of water.

The next evening, Thursday, was both the Fire Ferrets and the Tree Line Three next scheduled matches. The Fire Ferrets opened their season by winning in a second round knockout over the Dragon Flats District Dragonflies. Katara got the season's first Hat Trick, she took the Dragonflies all out by herself with just one attack after Ru and Hiroshi had both landed in the drink.

The Tree Line Three barely won their season opener against the Ba Sing Se Badgermoles, the reigning champions of the World Division. The Badgermoles had double teamed on Tal right at the start. He never got a chance to even attack. He was always being hit in the face with water and then hit in the gut by an earth disc. The force of the two attacks sent him into the water moat that the ring in the arena was suspended above. Somehow Tai had managed to make the opponents go at her all at once while Tay knock them each out one at a time with water attacks.

The six teens celebrated their victories together be going out on a triple date later that evening at Narook's Seaweed Noodlery. When they had all finished their meals, they went to a nearby dance club for an hour until they decided to call it a night. Tal and his sisters quickly returned to their apartment and were well rested by morning. Friday was spent by the girls going out shopping again with Katara all day. Tal spent his morning on the porch practicing firebending until lunch and then deciding to free run for while by himself. He got an idea for his destination, the city's main mall was about 20 blocks away. Most of the distance could be covered by rooftops but he would have to descend to street level to cross some major road ways. He would go and catch up with the girls, he could walk back home with them later.

By the end of an hour, he had covered the entire distance to the mall. It was an open air complex of a series of buildings . A network of walkways and bridges connected all the buildings and allowed visitors to travel freely around the mall. Instead of walking through the arch that was the main entrance, He found a route that of mostly a fire escape for him to get up to the roof. On the roof, he was able to freely reach any spot above the mall. There were no guards up there but Tal felt that he would not get into much trouble, considering that he was an Avatar after all.

Tal looked down from various vantage points until he finally spotted his sister and Katara. All three were carrying large bags in their hands. He was just about to jump down and surprise them when he noticed two men that seemed to be trailing the girls. Two men wearing long cloaks on a hot afternoon. Following the two men while staying up on the roof, he confirmed his belief that they were trailing the girls. The place was packed and the noise from the crowd was deafening. But nobody ever looked up to see a single person just walking across the rooftops.

Tal saw Katara spot a really nice overcoat and yet another nice dress. The love of his life really needed a thinner one if she was ever going to go out with him again in that really short black dress she had worn. She went to find a dressing room to try on the dress and coat, leaving Tai and Tay outside of the store. That was when Tal saw the two men begin to close in on his sisters. He jumped down off the roof and landed in a light thud on the floor. He used a mix of his free running and some airbending to avoid injuring himself during the fall. It was so loud and busy that nobody even noticed such a incredible acts like that.

Tai and Tay never noticed that they had were being watched. The two of them found a bench in the shade near the store that Katara was in when two figures dress in long cloaks approached them. One of them spoke in a muffled voice that was still loud enough for him to be heard by the girls over all the noise from the crowd. He asked if the twins were the two female members of the Tree Line Three probending team.

Tay answered yes, thinking that it was just two fans who wanted an autograph or something like that. What they found out was that each man had on a pair of Equalist electric gloves. And these two men were getting really close to them, and they grabbed them. The girls were not shocked but could feel the tingling sensation of some of the electricity given off by the gloves. Tai tried to scream but her capture cover her mouth with his hand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" A voice shouted loudly over the crowd. Dozens of people turned to look and saw the new Avatar standing right behind two men in long cloaks. The two attackers turned their attention to him instead. Four electric gloves verse a teen bender. They threw off their cloaks to reveal that they were wearing the trademark uniform of the Equalists, including the green eyed gas mask. Then they made a dumb move on their part. They attacked him head on. Everyone else in the crowd nearby ran for cover or just get away from the fight.

Tal watched the Equalists move as if they were in moving in thick mud. The appeared slower to him that what he knew Equalists were capable of. His Avatar powers must have been helping him. He simply dodged the first one to reach him by ducking under and sending a series of jabs up the man's arms in all the right places. This caused the attacked to scream out in pain as his chi was blocked and his arms dangled from his shoulders, useless for a few a minutes until the chi blocking wore off. Tal subdued the other in a similar manner. He then sent a few good punches to the stomachs of the men, sending them to the ground and down for the count.

This little interruption in the peaceful setting of the mall attracted the attention of others to the fight. Seconds after Tal had sent the Equalists to the ground, two Republic City Policemen arrived. They were about to take down Tal until they noticed that he was the Avatar. The teens showed the cops the gloves the men had been wearing, electric gloves of the same design as decades before. But like all those years before when the Equalists attacked the arena during the championship match, there were many more of them than just the two captured ones.

While the crowed watched as the two cops handcuffed the attackers, another two dozen undercover Equalists, wearing normal civilian attire moved to encircle the girls, cops and Tal. Most of the crowd was still fleeing but the cops only saw a few dozen onlookers try to get closer to get a better view of the scene. Those approaching them, reached into pockets and bags to don their gloves and covered their faces with bandanas like Tal and his sisters did when in a match. The five of them were surrounded on all sides and outnumbered.

By now Katara had heard the commotion coming from outside and ran out of the store to see her boyfriend and his sisters next to two of her father's police officers as they arrested two men. She saw some other people with masks on closing in on her friends. She yelled, "Tal! Behind you!" A person was about to use a glove on him. But in the blink of an eye, she watched as he spun around to perform a sweeping kick into the side of this new attacker. She watched the person, a woman fall to the ground as Katara heard something in the woman's side crack. She would not be getting up, the wind had been knocked out of her and Tal had probably broken a few of her ribs.

What everyone saw after that, could only help to prove the fact that Tal was an Avatar. He was taking on sometime two or three Equalists at a time and stopping them without even having to resort to bending. He was subduing them with his own Equalist training his parents had taught him and his sisters years before. On had his nose and jaw broken when Tal flipped him and sent to the ground. Another had a dislocated arm. One had been put in a sleeper hold, passing out due to asphyxiation right in Tal's arms. With a good third of their comrades now on the ground and out of the fight, the remaining Equalists began to attack him in larger groups.

Tal, seeing that he was now greatly outnumbered, began to resort to firebending to defeat his opponents. His large blasts of fire from his hands were keeping the remaining Equalists far away from everyone. They knew that the Avatar would surely go for their masks with the fire and nobody wanted to become a _real _Amon. A person who actually had to hide their face behind a mask because of a fire attack to the face. Some of them were busy being kept back by the two cops and the three girls, but the cops were nonbenders. The cops only weapons were wooden clubs, and Katara and Tay had no water available to use for waterbending. Then the sound of reinforcements rang through the air. The distinct siren of a Metalbending Airship. Everyone looked up to see the source of the siren was directly above them. Now the fight was securely in favor of the good guys.

As the Equalists who could still stand and fight began to try and escape, dozens of metal cables shot out of the bottom of the airship. Within a few seconds, all of the Equalists had been captured. The airship continued to hover above the area as metalbender cops descended from it. Katara recognized her uncle as one of them and ran to greet him. "Uncle Bolin! Thank goodness you're here!" She thanked him as she hugged her uncle as Tal and his sisters kept their distance.

"What in the world happened here?" Bolin asked as he walked over to the two nonbender cops. They saluted him and reported that the two Equalists already handcuffed were trying to attack the Avatar and the twin sisters. The other Equalists then attacked them but Tal fought them off until Commander Bolin and his metalbenders arrived to save the day. But Bolin was not content with just this report. He lead them all to the police headquarters which was not far away. Inside, the Equalists were detained in holding cells or were sent to the infirmary. But the first two, the ones which tried to first capture Tai and Tay were taken to a room for questioning.

The teens were lead to a room where they could watch the questioning. Korra was inside with Mako, Katara hugged her parents, they hugged her back hard, happy that their daughter wasn't harmed in the attack. The two adults told the teens to stay put and then Mako and Korra left to join Bolin in the room with the two conscious and unharmed prisoners. Korra entered the room first and the Equalists looked at her with fear. If the elder Avatar was here, then Chief Mako was nearby as well. The good thing was that Korra and Mako were probably more kind to their prisoners that who The Doctor was to his agents who had failed him. Armed with this knowledge, the two Equalists talked and told them the whole story.

All the agents had been based in Republic City. The location of the main Equalist stronghold was a mystery even to them. Communication only came via the mail or phone and the number changed all the time. What else they told their captors was that they had received a package from The Doctor, who they also had no clue as to the real identity of. The package contained a letter from a superior lower on the command chain than the top Equalist and a copy of a set of photos. The photos were that of the execution of Tal's, Tai's, and Tay's parents. Photos of the town being attacked. Of the residents being imprisoned. The massacre, and the enslavement of nonbender individuals of Tree Line.

Then there were photos of Nikolai and Anya in prisoner uniforms. Nikolai was also photographed while he was forced to do hard physical labor. Anya was featured in photos of her being forced to cook and clean for a wealthy Equalist family of a unknown town. None of the photos, nor the letter told where the Equalists were based, instead it only gave a grueling account of the attack and the events that followed, all the way until the hanging of Nikolai and Anya. The pictures also had the date they were taken written on the back of them. The most recent was just over a week ago.

Korra almost lost her cool at hearing the news of such a disrespect for life. Mako was barely containing himself too but Bolin was able to keep his brother and his sister in law in check. He told Korra and Mako to leave before they did something crazy, or just plain illegal. He knew the two of them would probably have ended up beating the stuffing out of these two monsters but he knew a better way. Good old solitary confinement in a cell barely big enough for a person to stand in or lay down in. He summoned two of his metalbenders to usher their new _guests_ to their new homes.

Mako and Korra went into the room where the four teens were. Inside they Tai and Tay crying hard as Tal tried to comfort his sisters. He was barely holding in his own tears. The news of their parents' deaths were going to be a hard event for them to overcome. Katara could only watch her new friends and her boyfriend just hold each other in a hug as they mourned for their parents. Weeks before, Tal had told her that they had cried all the way back to the North Pole the day they found out about the massacre. But now, Katara saw something else begin to burn in Tal's eyes as he looked up to wipe away his own tears now. He was hell bent on revenge. Equality among benders and nonbenders was a belief he firmly believed in, especially now that he was an Avatar. But now he swore that all Equalists who threatened the life of a bender or even another nonbender, or benders who used their powers for crime or terror, were going to pay.

And they all were going to pay with their lives.

* * *

**So now Tal is out for blood and is probably going to go all Avatar Kyoshi on the Equalists. AKA, kick everyone's butts!**

**Yet another round of thankyous to those who fav/follow/review just now after I have now written over 25 chapters.**

**Usually after awhile, writer will just have their set following of readers for a story who have selected to follow the story after reading the first few chapters when they were published. But this story seems to get a new follower every few days,even if I haven't updated. I don't seem to get as much followers as stories that involve certain adult themes and just that but my story here must be still popular enough to keep new people selecting to follow it just now.**

**So, thankyou everyone, I'll try to put up at least one more chapter before I leave for my 2 week military training exercise followed by my week long vacation of fishing up in Canada.**


	27. Plans on Paper

**Well, here is a nice long chapter. I might be able to post one more if I get enough ideas in my head. But I leave on Saturday for three weeks of military and vacation. Most of it will be long days of military exercises. So please don't feel offended if I don't update for a while now.**

* * *

Chapter 27: Plans on Paper

The next few days were really a blur to Katara, or was it a week or two? After the news of the deaths of their parents; Tal, Tai, and Tay became very secluded for a while. She understood them, their parents were murdered along a few thousand other. She would come home from practice at the Sato mansion to find either Tai or Tay crying so much it was if either girl was tearbending. Katara had even seen a burst of blue flames and lightning occur on the island as she was on the ferry home. She thought that Tal was progressing far into his firebending training.

What really happened was that Tai got so made at her performance one day at practice that she got so mad she went overboard with her fire attacks on a practice dummy. Katara found Tai crying on the ground, she had caused such a large and hot flame that her mostly metal target had literally been vaporized. Tay wasn't nearly as bad. She just broke down in tears at almost any time or place. She even had a fit after being knocked into the water pit during their latest probending match.

Tal was having his own troubles too, during their match that week. He got ejected from the game from unnecessary roughness. His aim was off but still all his shots with the discs hit only the opponents' chests but the refs though he was being too rough on the opponent. Tai had to win it in the end on her own hat trick. She got it by sending a very powerful blast of fire right at the guts of the other team.

After the match, the situation wasn't getting any better. Tal had planned to take Katara out to a new restaurant for dinner and some dancing, but he was so mad at the refs he cancelled his their date. While Katara just stood there feeling sorry for Tal's pain that she could never help heal, he just stormed off to go back home. Tai and Tay did go out with Hiroshi and Ru, but they told Katara the next day at practice that their dates consisted of mostly going to the park, sitting on a bench and embracing their girlfriends as the girls poured their hearts out in crying over the deaths of their parents and the rest of their hometown.

By afternoon of that day, a day in which her mom was supposed to let Tal mediate. Katara found Tal and Korra arguing at each other loudly. He wanted to go to the jail and personally make each of the captured Equalists suffer for what they have caused him and his sisters to go through. Korra had to keep reminding him that an Avatar's job was to be peaceful and not go all _Avatar Kyoshi_, or epic butt kicking, on people who did them wrong. Korra and the world wanted peace. He wanted blood.

Katara could only watch from a distance her boyfriend and her own mother went from arguing loudly, to swearing loudly, to having fire ball form in their hands, to almost having an Agni Kai bout right on the spot. Katara stopped them before either of them could hurt themselves or the other. Her mother just stood there amazed that her anger nearly made her attack her fellow Avatar. Tal just walked away. Katara went and hugged her mother, telling her that everything was going to be okay.

As soon as Korra was able to regain from the shock, she went back inside their house to go rest. Katara however, went searching for Tal. She found him in the one place she thought he would never go. He was in the little secret hiding shot that she showed him. Both of them remembered that night well. It was the one night after dinner weeks ago, when the two of them first confessed their attraction to one another. And Tal was mediating, or what Katara thought at first was sleeping because of Tal's unorthodox way of holding his head in his hands as he mediated. She just sat down against a nearby tree and watched him for what seemed like hours. She fell asleep only to be woken by him around dinner time."How long have you been here?" He asked her as he sat down next to her.

"Just a little after you have left." she answered him as she took his arm. "I had to make sure my mom didn't try to have you arrested by my dad." She shifter over to sit much closer to him, now touching. She took his arm she had taken and laid it over her shoulders. "What did do see when you meditated today?"

"I spoke with Avatar Aang, just like I always do when I meditate. I remembered what he told me the first time I connect with him in the Spirit World. Your mom was there too and Aang told her that I have a dark spot in my soul for vengeance, and I need to find a way to combat it. I think I found out what it is I need to think about when I start to think like I need kill my enemies and not just bring them to justice." What he said next astonish her. "I need to think about you, Katara." He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. He then got up and help her up as well. The needed to get to dinner soon or her family was going to think the two of them were eloping or something.

They made it to dinner with time to spare still. Tal apologized to Korra for arguing with her. He told her about what Avatar Aang had told him. Mako could only watch as his wife and listened to how their own daughter, was the key to keeping Tal from turning into a sociopathic killing machine. He was starting to get used seeing his daughter with the young Avatar. He even admitted, although only to Korra once, that Katara and Tal did indeed make a cute couple. He was just worried that Katara and Tal were still too young to have such a serious relationship. But he then remembered that he and Korra were the same age when they had their own relationship start. And theirs started during the whole Amon fiasco.

Katara and Tal disappeared for a few minutes after dinner but were back before anybody really noticed. To their defense, they didn't do anything this time, not even kiss. Katara just took him to help her feed Kenai, her polar bear dog. Normally, an acolyte would do it in the evening but tonight Katara did it just to get him and her away from everyone. He and the twins left to go home early that day too, but not before Tal asked Katara if he could come with her to the Sato mansion the next day. Katara was puzzled at being asked such a favor but Tal insisted that it wasn't to watch the Fire Ferrets practice. He actually wanted to show something to Hiroshi's younger brother and sister. Hideki and Mishi were the two nonbender children of Bolin and Asami. Just because they were younger than their earthbender brother, the two of them although only being 15 and 14, were mechanical geniuses like their mother.

Katara did take him to the Sato mansion that next morning. He met her at the ferry landing near the arena. He was standing there with a tube that she recognized as one of the various decorations in his apartment. Initially, she thought it was a quiver for arrows but Tal told her now that it was really a collection of blueprints for new weapons and contraptions that his parents had been allowed to see from their position in the Equalist organization. Most had already been seen by the public in past attacks by Equalists, like the mecha tanks, the biplanes, the torpedoes, the electric gloves...But some had still been yet to be found being used by Equalist agents.

Katara asked him why he never showed her parents the plans. He told her that he thought all the plans were outdated or the real creations had already been studied for weaknesses. They took a bus up to a stop that was near the gate to the mansion and the two of them went inside. The guards posted at the gate already knew Katara was not a threat to the family who lived inside, and the Avatar wasn't either. Hiroshi was at the front door waiting for his guests.

"Welcome Tal!" Hiroshi said loudly as he and Tal shook hands. "Welcome to the Sato mansion. Now before you tell me why toy are here, tell me why your lovely sister Tai is not here with you." He lead them in through the main doors and through the large entrance foyer. Tal knew the place was big and fancy, but seeing it for real now was amazing.

"Well Hiroshi, I didn't bring Tai or Tay with me because the two of them would have to watch their boyfriends get their butts handed to them by my girlfriend here, you happens to also be your cousin." Hiroshi was about to counter that insult but stopped, he remembered the last time Katara went off against the two of them in practice when she was in a bad mood. It was the last time the Fire Ferrets ever had practiced on that one _incontinent_ day of the month for Katara. He even thought about the one time last season when it was that one bad day for her, a full moon that night, and they had a match. Katara won that match by herself, she got hit in her abdomen by one of the opponents fire blast and then she went berserk. She almost got an ejection for using such force but the ref let it slide since the match was over due to a hat trick.

Hiroshi had to be hit in the shoulder by his cousin before he realized that his mind was wandering. He might be a few months older than her and three times as big, but her punches still hurt a lot to him. then Tal had to repeat what he was saying. "I would like to show some plans to Hideki and Mishi. I would like to see if they can help me with something." The big earthbender lead them down to the mansion's basement where his grandfather once had a secret workshop to help the Equalists.

The entrance from the mansion was much newer, the original entrance to the place was through a secret trap door out back in the above ground workshop. One half of the old large open room that was the workshop was converted into a probender ring. It was much more advanced than the one back on Air Temple Island. The Fire Ferrets actually had targets that could pop out of the floor and send quick blasts of fire or jets of water at the Ferrets. The other half of the room had stayed a workshop with hundreds of tools and machines and in the middle of all this were Hiroshi's younger siblings.

The 15 year old Hideki got his name from his mother's grandfather on her father's side. The 14 year old Mishi was named after Asami's grandmother on her mother's side. Asami's first born, Hiroshi, might be the her only bender child, but her other children inherited the Sato family genes. Where Hiroshi was big and strong like his father Bolin, and still somewhat smart like his mother Asami; Hideki and Mishi were much more smaller but even smarter and more tech savvy than their older brother. Their looks must have also come from their mother too. Hiroshi looked just like Bolin did back in the day, but Hideki looked like a slender version of his father, If Bolin was ever skinny to begin with. Mishi looked almost like an exact copy of Asami when she was 14.

"What brings you here to our humble lab Tal?" Hideki said as he made sure a cloth was covering the two teens' latest contraption. "You seemed to us as more of a physical brute strength kind of person than one who would like science."

"Ah! But that is where the two of you are wrong." Tal said to them as he opened the tube and took out the rolled up plans. He laid them on a table and began to look through the hundred or so pages, looking for one specific plan. "I am a believer in the art of using science to defeat one's adversaries. I use it all the time in the ring but I would like to see if you two can help build some things for me. I would like to be able to use these things the next time Equalists would be dumb enough to attack an Avatar." He was still paging through plans, he remembered that one weapon was in here somewhere.

"Well if you are looking to gain a little technical advantage over the Equalists Tal, you have come to the right place." Mishi said as she walked over to the table that held the cloth sheet. "We have actually been working on something you might like."

"Hold on a moment Mishi!" Hideki told her as she was just about to pull away the sheets to reveal their little pride and joy. "Will you let me at least me try and get Tal to become one of our many customers." He saw that Tal was confused by the term _customers_. "We help create devices and weapons for the police and the military and our mom tells the world that Future Industries made them and not us. Me and Mishi here, although do not have our names on the patents, we both receive a good portion of the revenue created. Out mom has a secret account of mountain of Yuans for just us to use when we ever move out of the mansion."

"Yep," Mishi said playfully as she played with her gorgeous hair she had gotten from her mom. "Hiroshi over there is only getting a small sum from his probending winnings in comparison to me and Hideki's inventions."

"Well, you two," Tal said as his fingers finally found the right plans. "This here is plans for a weapon that the Equalists decided to leave on the drawing board because they consider it to useless. My dad told me and my sisters that they didn't like the idea of using blades on their targets. They would rather use those gloves of theirs to immobilize their targets." He laid the plans on the table and everyone else in the room came around to look at it. "Where the Equalists look to a non lethal method to stop benders in their tracks. I would like a deadly tool to use on anyone who tries to cross me." His voice was beginning to sound a bit dark. Katara was a bit worried at that. "But if you all think that instead of a blade, you can use a hook instead." He looked right at Katara.

"Hooks?" Asked Mishi, "Why hooks instead of blades?"

"I can use the hooks to ride along on all those cables the metal bending police have that cross the city." Tal told them as he pointed to certain features on a gauntlet that covered his forearm. "I can use metal bending to activate the hooks to shoot out of the wrists. I can also use airbending or firebending to propel me alone on those cable if gravity won't do the job good enough. The hooks can also be used when I'm doing my climbing on the sides of buildings." He grabbed Katara and held her close to him. "It will have to be hooks instead of blades also because her mother doesn't want me to go gallivanting across the world using violence on my enemies. Avatar's are supposed to be peaceful, right Katara?" She didn't answer but she did look at him with a look of approval.

"So if you are looking for a way to get up on top of buildings Tal," Hideki asked, "Why not just fly like Fire Lord Iroh II can?" Everyone had read the stories about how the Fire Lord of the Fire Nation could have powerful jets of fire shot out from his hands that he could use to fly short distances. "Since you're an Avatar like my aunt, why not also learn to fly a glider like the rest of the airbenders?" Mishi looked at him and smirked. She knew what he was getting to.

"Hideki," Tal said, "We all know how flimsy those gliders are. And I can firebend to fly for only so long so what are you and your sister trying to tell me here?"

The two teens went over to the table with the sheet and pulled it off. Under the sheet was what looked like the device that housed the metal spools which the metalbenders used but the thing also had something that looked like a bird's wings attached to the back. "Tal, behold how you are going to b kicking every triad thug or Equalist agent in the rear end. Behold our little gift to you. With this, you could metalbend cables like a metalbender. You can use a glider like a airbender, but not need to worry about holding it in your hands because it is attached to your back. You can airbend to control the glider, firebend to speed up, attack or land vertically, and we have even but a electric battery on it so you can also shock opponents." Everyone but the two young geniuses were dumbfounded at the sight and the capabilities of the device.

It took some egging on from Mishi and her brothers to get Tal to at least try on the device. Hideki told him how they were going to not only make a hook gauntlet for each of Tal's hands, they now had a platform to attach the ends of the cables for the metal spools. This was the one issue he and Mishi had been trying to figure out until Tal arrived with Hiroshi and Katara. He had to take his coat off and also his other shirt until he was only left his beater on top. The rest of his clothes stay on, but Katara looked like she was still enjoying the view. Hideki and Mishi helped him to attach all straps and wires to their test subject.

All Tal was told he needed to do was metalbend one little switch on his back, he could just flip the other switch that was attached to the device's main waist belt. They all went to the training ring and watched from the sidelines as Tal stepped into the center circle. He flipped the switch and his stored wings shot out to form two bird wing shaped wings with a total wingspan of 10 feet. A much larger wingspan than airbender gliders. He then used the Iroh II rocket hands trick to blast off in to the air. The ceiling in the old secret workshop of Hiroshi Sato was quite high so Tal was a good 30 meters if the air before he stopped firebending and used his limited airbending to let him glide around the spacious room the ring was in the center of.

He was greeted with cheers as he used the rocket trick again to land firmly on his feet. He metalbended the other switch this time to make the wings fold into a small box on his back. He probably could find a way to hid the whole device under his long overcoat he loved to wear when it was colder. It was his favorite one, the one with the large hood. It was an old white United Republic Forces coat he found one day in a thrift store. The coat was practically calling out to him.

Katara ran up and hugged it after he folded the wings back. She kissed him on the lips as everyone cat called and whistled. "Now you can get over to the island even quicker." She said to him after they ended their kiss. She blushed when he told her that the glider could probably let him carry her too. Mishi wanted to see if it could, but her only girl cousin shot her idea down fast. Katara was not fan of flying. It had started years before when her mother let her tag along once when Korra used a glider to get to City Hall from the island. Katara had a fit, she was only 3 at the time, about being so high up.

To Katara, it seemed as if the whole shock of the deaths of her friends' parents had finally subsided and life could get back to what qualified as normal to her. She seemed to be really wanting Tal now, after that one night he had brushed her off after the match. She wanted to help but then saw him fight with his mentor, her mother. He then meditates to discover that she is the way for him to now go crazy with bloody revenge. And now he was being armed even more with tools to help him cover ground quickly and fly too.

Katara had to finally admit it, her life would not feel right if it weren't for Tal and his twin sister not showing up that one night at dinner. She thought about it as she was walked back to ferry by her love. If he never showed up, what would she have done? Would she be dating Ru? Would the Fire Ferrets be as good of a team if it weren't for all the competition the Tree Line Three gave them? Would those Equalists have gone and kidnapped her instead of trying to get Tai and Tay?

Many more questions followed as she watched from the ferry as Tal flew across Yue Bay with his new toy. He flew circles around the much slower ferry. He could have crossed the bay to the island in only a minute or slightly longer. Katara looked up and saw how happy he was, and wondered if it was just the flying do it. He looked down to wave at her and blow a kiss at her. He then rocketed higher into the afternoon sky with a huge smile on his face. But Katara was focused on what had had just done. He blew a kiss to her.

So what if they got married and he was away for a few days or weeks she thought. He had to go be the Avatar. Her mom got to stay in the city now that she had a successor to take care of the stuff outside of the capital. Katara began to think about following him on some of those trips to faraway places. Sure, she had been to places like that with her parents when her mother had to be the hero. But now Katara wanted to go see those places while she was in the strong embrace of her Tal.

* * *

**Well now you can really see that I have taken a lot of ideas from the Assassin's creed universe. There will be no templars in this story, only lots of weapons an d fighting.**

**If any of you readers are artists. You might like to try and draw what you think the characters fo this story now look like. Almost everyone is open game, but Tal's outfit is loosely based off Connor from the new Assassin's Creed III. But the rest are open to your interpretation.**

**If you are on Deviantart, post any art you come up with and send a message ti Kingtk414. That is my Deviant ID. I might be al to reply and critique any drawings if I get time but it might be a while before you all hear from me again.**

**Anyway, thankyou to all you are just now fav/follow/reviewing this story. Ihave gotten a lot of wonderful reviews after the last chapter and I hope more will begin to flood in after this and later chapters.**


	28. The Heat of Things

**After almost a month of no updates, I have finally managed to write a new chapter. However, the updates are ging to become a bit more spaced out for a bit because I have to deal with a few things for the military and I also start up school again this tuesday. I also work every night so I may only get the time to write new chapters during the weekends. I will keep up the pace as fast as I can to thank all those who love this story.**

**But as for this chapter, things will really heat up and I will also begin to time skip a lot. I'm even thinking of breaking up the entire story into books like they do with the TV show. The first would be ending in a few more chapters and I will then start a new story which would be the next book.**

* * *

Chapter 28: The Heat of Things

It was another week before Hideki and Mishi finished crafting the new weapons for Tal. In that week's time, he has almost mastered flying the glider. Every day, while his sisters had to climb down the stair of their apartment building, walk four blocks to the ferry landing at the arena and then take the ten minute trip to the island. Then after land at the island, the girls still had to climb that stupid long set of stairs to reach the practice ring. Tal only had to now walk out onto their rooftop porch, open the wings and rocketed into the air with airbending or firebending.

Korra was impressed not only how fast Tal had learned to use a glider, but also as her niece's and nephew's ingenuity. The probending practices in the morning became more and more just having the three teens run laps around the island in their practice gear. Lots of pull ups and sit ups, a max set of each after every lap. They had to switch back to this routine instead of using the dummy targets because they were just not preparing the Tree Line Three for real opponents. They had a superb offense but a cruddy defense plan. The only trick that seemed to work at all was Tal's shield trick with the discs.

Mornings like this were the norm for the next few months. Afternoon firebending training with Korra was the usual too. The only real apparent difference was Tal not wearing his glider device on his back during the training. It was quite small. The spools of cable were much smaller than what was used by the metalbending police. The whole size of the glider was no larger than a good sized phone book on his back. The year was deep into the summer months and a hot spell was still in effect in Republic City so it was still far too hot for him to wear his over coat.

Firebending during this hot spell made Tal really begin to sweat a lot. He looked over at Tai to see that she two was sweating but nowhere as much as him. He was really beginning to suffer a lot from the heat. For the whole week up to today, his water daily intake had nearly tripled. A large jug of water sat in the shade of a nearby tree. The next break for them would not be for another five minutes but Tal was really wishing it was now. It had to be close to 90 degrees in the shade alone and well over 100 out in the sun.

Tal liked the cold. He loved snow and he was like that because that was what Tree Line was like. Tai, she was a firebender, she could handle the heat better than others. Even Korra, Katara and Tay had been suffering under the oppressive heat. Tal's progress in his Avatar training had finally slowed down to a crawl, or it completely stopped. His flames were not getting any bigger and he only had so much control when creating lighting. Korra was training him to have total control in it and he was struggling now.

Korra must have had enough of the heat too. She called a stop to the training and cancelled the rest of the lesson plan for the day. Tal and the other teens knew exactly what to do to cool off. He grabbed his large towel that was now stained with dirt and sweat and he began to jog down to the one lone beach on the island. Because it was so hot, he was already wearing his swim trunks to help him feel cool, rather than his jeans and boots. He managed to remove the glider device and place it on his towel. His beater he had been wearing underneath was pretty much destroyed from use so he just ripped it off.

He had already been swimming in the cool water for about 5 minutes before his sisters and Katara showed up in their swimsuits. He noticed that Tai and Tay must have gotten new bikinis when they went shopping last. Katara was back in the same bikini she had worn the first time they all went swimming together. She looked just amazing now as she had that day. Tal was struck dumbfounded as he watched her wade into the water towards him slowly. She was flirting with him, and he was lucky he was out as far enough to stand and have the water go all the way up to his chest. He was starting to feel the blood flowing to a certain body part of his from just looking at his girlfriend.

Katara, because they were a few dozen yards apart, raised an arm into the air and pointed towards a small cove next to the beach. There were a few big rocks to swim around to enter the cove but it would give them total privacy. Tal looked over to the beach to see that his sisters had gone to lay down on their beach towels in a shaded part of the beach. By the looks of it the twins were sleeping. They would never notice their brother swimming off with Katara to a private cove.

Katara swam up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Want to go do some waterbending practice with me? We can't let the new Avatar fall behind in his waterbending training. So how about you and me go work on some _advanced_ techniques?" She flirted with him.

Tal kissed her and held out a hand, Katara yelped as he correctly guess what she was planning. "You mean some _private lessons_?" She was beginning to feel really good as he kept doing his little bloodbending trick on her, she was melting in his arms now. "What about those two over there?" He asked ask he threw a nod over to the beach where his sisters appeared to be sleeping in the shade. "What if your mom finds us? Or worse...what if your dad finds us?"

Katara was beginning to get frustrated with the whole idea Tal had that if Korra and Mako ever found him and their daughter all alone, Tal was going to be in a whole world of hurt. "Sweetie, nobody here is going to catch us," she told him as she began to pull him through the chest deep water over to the cove. "My dad and Aang are in the city, my mom is fast asleep, your sisters are asleep too. My little brothers are too busy trying to impress these two young Airbender girls we have here on the island." She was sure the two terrors were going to be far away from here and she knew the Airbenders never went down to the cove for anything. She didn't think about telling him that there was a secret passage that went to the cave from the basement of the main temple.

She did seem to make Tal feel a lot better after telling him they could not be spotted by anyone. The two of them swam safely around the rocks using some waterbending and entered the cove. Tal was quite impressed by the size and height of the cave that chewed into the side of the island to form one end of the cove. They swam in the water for a bit and then got out on the small beach the cave's floor was. Tal knew just enough waterbending to be able to dry himself off, but it still took much longer for him to do it than for Katara to do it.

They sat down on the sand, arms around each other. Tal and Katara talked about various topics from Tal's bending training, how the probending season was going, the increase in gang crime in the city, and the spread of the rumor that the Equalists were going to start another massacre. Katara finished each discussion by kissing Tal for a good period of time.

After two hours, this cycle of talking and kissing was broken by a large wave of water crashing on top of them. The two teens heard laughter after recovering from the shock, the laughter of two five year old boys, and two teenage girls. Zuko and Sokka, the twin terrors, had found her. And they brought along Tai and Tay. They had found her alone with Tal, in a secret place, in just their swimsuits, and they were kissing. If the two boys told their parents, Katara was in big trouble. Tal was surely going to pay dearly for it too.

"You two are in so much trouble, " Zuko said with a giggle as Tai threw Tal his backpack containing all the stuff he had brought over to the island today. He opened it up and dried himself off the normal way with the towel that was inside. Tay tossed Katara her bag of the stuff she had taken down to the beach. She dried herself off as well. The two embarrassed teens then proceed to put their shorts and t-shirts on over their swimsuits and then proceeded to follow the others up the secret passage near the back of the cave up.

"Mom and dad are looking for you, Katara," Sokka said as he lead everyone up the dozens of steps in the near darkness. The only light coming from the fists of Zuko, Tai and Tal, who could firebend. "We told them you all were down at the beach."

"Yep," Tay said as she nearly tripped on a step as she was having trouble climbing the narrow stairs, "These two scared us awake and then we told them where you two went." She saw the look of horror Katara gave her. The twin girls were clearly faking their naps. "They also told us that Korra wanted to speak with you about something, Katara." They reached the end of the stairs and found themselves in the cellar of the main building of the main temple on the island. A few minutes later, while the others sat down in the main room or the house, Katara walked into her bedroom to find her mother sitting on the side of her bed.

Katara joined her mother on the bed. Korra was not looking directly at her own daughter and there was a few seconds of silence until Korra spoke. "So you took Tal to the cove today." She finally looked over to Katara to find her looking both surprised and embarrassed. "Don't look so surprised that I didn't suspect that you would go there to try and be all alone with him, young lady." Korra's voice was beginning to sound stern. "Just remember that I tried all the same things with your father back in the day when we were your age. We used that cove all the time to keep away from Tenzin." Katara's eyes widened when she heard this. She was just like her mother in almost every way.

"We weren't doing anything foolish mom, I swear," Katara told her mother as she tried to sound as apologetic as possible. She really was sorry, she wanted her mother to know that. "I only took Tal down there so that the two of us could be alone." She was nearly copying the way Korra used to apologize to Tenzin or Pema when she was in trouble for something she had done wrong. "All we did was talk about how our lives were going since we haven't gone out in over a month. He has been training with you so much that he barely has enough time for probending. He has been spending so much time with you and Tai with firebending , that me and Tay feel left out of the loop."

This statement from Katara surprised the adult Avatar. Korra had been so busy getting Tal to master firebending, she had barely spent any time with her own daughter. Now she was feeling awful for having done this, but now she had some important things she needed to tell Katara. "Sweetheart, I'm only being this way with you right now because Tal needs to be ready to assume the duties of an Avatar as soon as he can. He only found out about his duty only months ago, I was told I was the Avatar when I was a little child. I had over 12 years of training before I mastered all four elements. My predecessor, Avatar Aang, mastered 3 elements in under a year and a half."

She was nearly to the verge of tears and she could see that Katara was beginning to cry a bit as well. "Tal might be able to bend all four elements, be he has only mastered earthbending. He also needs to master the Avatar State." Now Korra was crying, Katara was shocked to see her mother, the heroine of the world for decades as the Avatar was crying over such a matter. Avatar Korra, her own mother was crying like a heartbroken teenage girl. "Tal needs to become a fully realized Avatar, Katara. I've failed as a Avatar! I never could protect everyone, and I almost died once!"

Katara threw herself into a hug around her sobbing mother. "Mom, it's going to be alright. You're not a failure. You saved the world plenty of times even before me or Aang was born." She hugged Korra tighter, "You saved the world plenty of times since I was born. You are a great Avatar." Her mother was calming down a bit but tears will sill dripping down her cheeks. "Tal doesn't need to rush his training, mom. He is already a hero to the people. The public love him, everyone loves him." She was about to say she loved him, but cut herself off. This was about Tal, not her.

"Katara," Korra told her was she gulped a bit from her crying. "I'm just scared that I'm losing everyone I know and love." First it was Sifu Katara, your namesake, then it was Aang's children who helped train me: Kya, Bumi, Tenzin. Then it was Lin, and then my own parents. They're all gone!" She tried to gather the courage to tell Katara the news. She tried to speak but the words wouldn't leave her mouth. Then she finally managed to force it out. "And now you brother is going to be getting married and moving away." She resumed her crying after admitting the news.

Katara's stomach settled down after hearing the news. She thought that somebody had died. No, it was her brother Aang. Her mom had broken down into tears about the idea of her eldest child finally growing up and leaving the family home start his own family. She could understand that her mother was going to be a bit upset but things like this were going to happen eventually, but this was insane. "Mom, you need to settle down, Aang is just going to get married and is going to still be living in Republic City, it's not like we will never be able to see him again. He and Jazzi will just be a short ferry ride away."

"I know sweetie," Korra said as she wiped away her tears and calmed down to a much more composed state. "It's just that I knew that your brother was going to move away soon, but ever since Tal, Tai and Tay came into our lives, I realized that you might be moving farther away from me and your father now too."

Now Katara was stumped. "What do you mean mom? What does Tal and his sisters have to do with me? I'm not moving away, I love being with you all." She hugged her mother again to show her love.

"Katara, you and Tal are probably the definition of a perfect couple. You two just seem to click so well. Just like me and you father do. You're also going up too princess, you are not a little girls anymore, no matter how much me and your father try to keep it that way." Korra was now having to do what she dreaded about doing ever since she found out that she was pregnant with a girl almost 17 years ago. "It's just that when you turn 17 at the end of the year Katara, you are considered old enough to get married her in the city. Your father already told me that he doesn't want you two to go and get married right away. We just want you two take things slowly, and not start having children at such a young age." Her daughter was surprised at such a omission.

"Don't you worry mom," Katara assured her mother as she continued to hug her tightly. "If Tal does propose to me, I promise you and dad that we won't get married for a good year at least and I can assure you that you will not get any grandchildren from me for a good long time after that." Katara knew she was sure not ready to get married and settle down yet. She loved Tal a whole lot, but she still valued her independence. She didn't mind the idea of getting engaged, marriage was a little bit of a scary thing.

On the other side of the island, Tal was not exactly having the most comfortable talk with the chief of Republic City's police. Mako came home only a few minutes after Tal and the others sat down to stay cool inside the house. The chief walked right into the room and ask Tal, but it sounded more like an order, to join him for a walk outside. The air outside seemed to be cooling off in the afternoon breeze, but Tal felt as if he was walking next to a burning inferno. He was kind of right about the heat, he could feel the heat coming off of Katara's father. "So what are you planning to do after the probending season is over Tal?" Mako asked as he continued to walk along the trail that wound around the perimeter of the island.

Tal was quick to answer him, "I will continue my training. Maybe after the season is over, I can devote even more time to master firebending so I can proceed to start more advanced airbending."

"Anything else?' Mako asked him as he briefly stopped to turn and face Tal. _What is he getting at here?_ Tal thought to himself as he tried to think about what else he planned to do with the added time. "Have ever planned to return to your hometown to see if it is still abandoned? Maybe go on a nice long tour of the world to show that you are going to be there to serve the people as their next Avatar?"

"Shouldn't I be concentrating on mastering all the elements and then the Avatar State, sir?" Tal asked politely using sir to address the man who was married to his mentor...and the father of his girlfriend.

"Now Tal, just because you have only mastered earthbending, doesn't mean that you can go out now and help people now." They started walking again and Mako had to remind Tal that Avatar Aang was taught will he was one the run from the Fire Nation during the Hundred Year War. Aang was helping to keep the world safe with only the limited bending knowledge he had obtained by the age of 14. "Korra is just trying so hard to get you up to the point she was at when she was your age. She started her training as a little girl by the White Lotus who almost treated her like a prisoner. You realized your gift so much later then her and she just wants you to be ready to take on the responsibilities as soon as you can. Korra is human too, she can't be in a hundred places at once and still try to have a family."

"Is this just your way of telling me that I should spend more time training than ding probending to earn a income and not spend any of my very little of free time with your daughter?" Tal accused Mako as the teen had to stop walking. He suspected that much but all he got in return for his outburst was watching the chief laugh lightly."Stop with the laughing chief, and face the music. I love Katara with all my heart and there is nothing can do to stop me from loving her."

"When then _Avatar Tal_," Mako said as he emphasized Tal's title. "You are both right and wrong. You are wrong in thinking that you can't go out right now into the world and make a difference. But you are also right about you and Katara. You can love my daughter all you want, and I hope that you two keeping loving each other for the rest of your lives." He walked over to a nearby stone bench that was on the trail and sat down to look over the bay at the city. Tal walked over to the bench, but he remained standing."We are only having this conversation because Aang just proposed to Jazzi at lunch today. I'm losing my eldest son in a sense, but I will gain a daughter-in-law. A growing family, is a happy family."

"Okay Chief," Tal asked as he was starting to connect the dots on this conversation. "I think you are trying to tell me something important but you just don't want to do it."

"Whose birthday is coming up in a few more months at the end of the year?" Mako knew that the teen knew the answer already.

"Katara's, and I have already been planning on what I was going to get her." He had been working on that for the last three months.

"And what exactly is it you are going to be giving my daughter?" He knew what Tal was going to say. He didn't want to hear it but Mako had to face the idea of it happening sooner or later. He just wished it was a lot later before it happened.

"I've been saving up a lot of my personal winnings from probending and I'm going to get her a betrothal necklace. I love her and want her hand in marriage but I'm also want it so that you and Korra don't feel like things are being rushed." Tal put his arms over his chest and told Mako his plan. "I wish to propose to Katara on her birthday when she turns 17, but I think that a nice long engagement is in order so that we won't actually get married until she is at least 18." After he finished, he braced himself to be burned alive by Mako's firebending.

"How about a little longer?" Mako told him sternly. "You don't get married until she is 18." He looked Tal right in the eyes. "The two of you are way too young to get married at only the ages of 18 and 17. You got my permission, and Korra's too, but we want a nice long, really long engagement. Maybe you two should travel around the world together next year." He looked at Tal's face of surprise.

Then he gave Tal a good warning. "Just don't try any funny business, because me and Korra will be right alongside you two the whole time." He held up a fist which then caught fire as he firebended to make his point very clear. "You do anything bad to my little girl and I will _personally_ help continue the Avatar Cycle by searching for the next Avatar our of the Fire Nation after I'm finished killing you." He dropped the fist and the fire around it vanished. "Am I clear?"

Tal answered without a hint of emotion, "Perfectly clear."

* * *

**I really hpe this chapter makes up for the fact that the last update was almsot a month ago. You can already see that the main 'ship' in this story is well established and will be a big part in the next few chapters and a main part of the next story as well. Plenty of action, adventure, mystery, and drama chapters will follow as well.**

**Also, I have noticed that although it has not been updated, many are still reading or at least checking out the story. I'm seeing that a least a dozen hits a day. So thankyou for all those who follow/fav this story or leave reviews as well.**

**So please, from the more remote and uncharted recesses of my soul less heart! Please keep the reviews coming in!**

**If you like the story and want to read more, don't just add the story to your alerts, add my author tag as well.**


	29. A Split Personality

**Sorry for the long wait but I have had classes start up again and having four high level history classes and a nightly job aren't exactly the best things for someone who writes fanfiction on the side. But after such a long time, I got a nice gory fight chapter for you all.**

* * *

Chapter 29: A Split Personality

The summer began to draw closer and closer to its conclusion day by day. The heat finally leveled down to a more than comfortable range. The probending season entered its last month of the regular season and the championships looked like it was going to be a huge thriller this year. The Fire Ferrets and the Tree Line Three records, although with a small handful of losses each, both looked to be contenders for the post season. Korra was happy to see that once the heat of the summer stopped being an issue, Tal's progress in firebending picked up again. A few weeks into the fall, she decided he was ready to take his firebending test, which was decided was going to be determined like how he performed his earthbending test, in the Spirit World.

So, on the last calendar day of the summer, Tal and Korra meditated once again and ventured back into the Spirit World. Just like how Avatar Kyoshi was the judge for Tal's earthbending test, her successor, Avatar Roku, would be the judge for Tal's firebending test. Tal had only meet with Roku twice before the test while doing meditation with Korra. Roku seemed to be a very nice person and all but he warned Tal about the dangers he might face if he did not let go of his pure hatred for the Equalists. He reminded the teen about the story of how Avatar Kuruk lost his lover because of his thirst for fighting. Tal asked him what would happen if he couldn't let go of the hate.

Roku answered with saying that the spirits would rip Tal's soul apart and he would begin to slowing go into madness, or at least half of his soul would. The other half would be sane and good, while the other was evil and crazy. Aang had to remind Tal and Korra about the talk they had the first time Korra took Tal into the Spirit World. Aang said there was a way for Tal to stay grounded to his sanity, but he told his successors that they had to find out about it on their own. The answer was plain as day now, it was Katara. Their love kept him from dwelling on about all the horrible things that had happened. Tal would occasionally still think about this revenge he sought but Katara kept him occupied from seeking out that vengeance for real.

Tal had barely finished saying he accepted the challenge of the test when he suddenly found himself in middle of the all too familiar ring of the Pro-Bending Arena. Only this time, instead of a dozen metalbender cops lead by Katara's uncle Bolin, Tal was surrounded by now two dozen enemies. All of them wore the uniform of a firebender cop and the leader appeared before Tal. It was Mako, and he looked mad, if mad was where his eyes were glowing red like he was possessed. Before he could even get over the surprise of Mako showing up, three more walked forward to be recognized. It were spirits taking the form of Korra's son Aang, Ru, and Tai. Aang was wearing his usual day uniform and somehow Ru and Tai did too. Tal was really thrown off now, he would have to face four familiar friendly faces, one of them being one of his own sisters.

Off in the distance, the bell that sounded to signal the start of round s in matches tolled. It had barely tolled when Tal was suddenly knocked off his feet and sent far back to one end of the ring. The four "friends" of his had just gotten the better of him and took the advantage. He quickly got back onto his feet and began to block and or dodge any and all attacks sent at him. While Tal considered his earthbending test a challenge, this test was almost hell on earth. The heat was intense and he was rapidly losing his energy to shooting flames and lightning back at the multiple enemies he now faced. He managed to knock out of the ring a few of the more aggressive attackers who appeared only like normal everyday firebender cops. The real issue was those four adversaries who looked like people he knew or cared about.

What was also beginning to bug Tal was that those four attackers decided to stay back behind a wall of the other enemies. From there, they resorted to taunting Tal. The spirit in the form of Tai begun to yell over the commotion that Tal was the reason their parents were killed. He was the reason their hometown was massacred and she was secretly hating him ever since. The spirit in the form of Ru yelled over the noise that Tal had stolen Katara from him and that she was really in love with him and not Tal. He even went as far as to say that he would go and steal not only Katara from Tal, but also take both his sisters as well as "trophies".

That last comment really hit Tal. He was fuming after that. He wanted to put that spirit back in its place. Hell, he wanted that spirit dead. He soon felt as if the energy inside of him doubled. Tal felt as if he had not only gotten a "second wind", but a third and a fourth as well. He felt as if there was a full moon and it was powering his firebending to a whole new level. He thirst for revenge was being quenched as if it was doused in cactus juice. It felt good...really good.

Over where the referee's stand was, Korra sat and watched the test with Avatars Aang and Roku. What had started out as a match were Tal would be tested now looked as if it would get out of control. She too was surprised by the appearance of the four spirits in the form of her husband, her eldest son, along with Ru and Tai. Korra watched in suspense as Tal was battered with attack after attack. But he held his ground and begin to knock out opponents one at a time. Then came the taunting, she shuddered in fear as the spirits in the forms of Ru and Tai assaulted Tal with hate threats. She grasped her heart and had to sit down when the Ru spirit told Tal about his plan for her daughter Katara and Tal's sisters. How could something like that ever happen. She knew Ru was not like that, and Korra knew that Tai loved her brother dearly.

"How can you two let Tal go through such pain?" She begged Aang and Roku who could only stand and watch the match. They had no control to alter the match and Korra could see the worry in Aang's face when he heard the boy who was named after him by his successor begin to pelt Tal with flames and yell that Katara did not deserve such a failure such as Tal. He said that he would kill the teen if he ever did anything to his sister, that is if Mako didn't kill the teen first. How could the spirits say such horrible things. Korra knew her son liked Tal and had no issue with the boy dating his only sister. And the spirit in the form of her love, Mako, she knew that her husband would never do such a thing that would hurt Katara so much as if he were to kill Tal. "You have to stop this before something bad happens! She yelled to her fellow Avatars as the three of them watched as Tal begin to take the offensive.

Korra, Aang, and Roku watch as Tal soon begin to become not only gaining an advantage on his attackers, but now his attacks began to become much more violent. He had stopped trying to knock his opponents out of the ring, now he was aiming to ending all attacks, with death. Just as soon as the Mako spirit had finished yelling a rather nasty series of insults at Tal, Korra watched as Tal did something that she only thought would be possible after months of more training. Tal entered the "Avatar State". She watched as Tal's eyes begin to glow, not in the traditional white light, but red like the spirits he was fighting. Korra was horrified at what she saw, her successor had gone mad.

Tal felt way too good as he made his way back up to the middle of the ring. He them heard Mako speak and he lost it. He then suddenly felt as if the world slowed down like it had the one time he fought the Equalists back when they attacked his sisters and Katara. This time however, the world moved by much slower and now he had no control of what he was doing. He could only watch was he created two small blades of pure jets of flames from under his wrists, just like his hooks he used with his glider. He then moved forward and began to violently attack all the remaining opponents.

Korra from up on her perch far away from the terror, saw Tal stab a spirit in the neck with one of the flame blades he had created from his wrists. He then slashed the neck of another. Korra heard screams from the spirits as they fell to the ground and grasped their necks as blood gushed from their wounds at a deadly rate. The others in the ring with him realized that Tal now had lost control and he wanted blood, their blood. They soon doubled their attacks but now the young Avatar was too powerful in this Avatar State of madness. Tal had to merely just wave his hand in from of him and all the balls of flame sent at him just bounced off, leaving him unharmed.

Tal, in his state of madness, now was moving much quicker that he had ever done before. The power he was receiving when in his Avatar State was incredible. He felt as if he were unbeatable, unable to be hurt, not even feel fatigued. His body was craving the power, but his mind was split. One half wanted him to stop the killing. The other half wanted the bloodshed to continue even longer. He quickly ripped at the throat of another spirit. Another tried to attack him but he easily just stabbed the lone spirit in the leg and then shot a blast of flames right into its face. Tal, who still had no control of what he was doing , heard himself laugh as the sound of the spirit cry in agony as it clenched its face in pain with one hand and its leg with the other.

Tal watched as he then smashed his wrist into the spirit's forehead, jamming his fire blade right into its brain, if the thing even had one. This killed the spirit in an instant. He could heard Korra yelling from somewhere to stop this nightmare, but he couldn't, he had no control. He tried to shout to tell her he couldn't control it, he felt his mouth move but no sound came from it other than more laughing madness. He heard a voice similar to his speak to him as he watched his body use the two fire blades from his hands cross each other to decapitate another spirit. The voice called out to him, "There is no use Tal. I am in control! Or should I say... _you_ are in control!". Tal had no idea what this voice meant by saying he was in control for he surely wasn't if he couldn't stop the chaos he was causing.

Tal, or whoever the voice was, easily dispatched the last spirit he could not recognize. He was rather lenient to this one, he just sent a wall of flames crashing into it and the spirit fell off the ring's platform and into the water below. All this was now left in the ring with him were the four spirits in the form of Mako, Ru, Aang, and Tai. Realizing that they were all that was left in the ring against Tal, they attacked him all at once.

The spirit in the form of Ru was the closest to Tal, so he was the first to try and get a hold on the teen. He tried to grab the teen and embrace him in a hold to trap Tal. The grab was successful and the Tai spirit rushed in to attack Tal while he was trapped in the Ru spirit's hold. Her attack of flames met only the air directly in front of The Ru spirit as Tal threw his head backwards into his captor's face. Tal was released and dodged Tai's attack and sent flames hard into her to knock her over the edge and into the water far below. He even heard her scream just like the real Tai did whenever she was knocked out in probending matches.

Korra, still in shock from her student's attacks, watched as Tal effortlessly throw Ru over his shoulder. The throw was hard enough that Ru skid across the ground and followed Tai into the water only seconds later. Korra saw that Tal was now only left with the spirits in the shape of her own husband and firstborn child. Unlike the other spirits, who were at brutally slaughtered, the Ru and Tai spirits had been left mostly uninjured and only sent over the edge.

Her heart sunk at the thought that Tal might not be so kind to his last two opponents. She saw the Aang spirit advance with full flaming fury. Tal's speed from his Avatar State of madness had to actually slow down to block the attacks. Either Tal was tiring out or this spirit was very powerful. She could only see a gigantic ball of fire and lightning engulf Tal. She couldn't hear him scream in pain and she feared that Tal was finally hurt. But Tal proved that he was still alive and well when he simply rushed out of the flames and sent a very surprised Aang well over the ledge before gravity took over the rest and he too fell down into the water.

All that now stood between the raging Tal and victory was the spirit in the form of Mako. That one spirit had been hanging back in the rear and letting the other spirits take the brunt of the young Avatar's attacks and later get killed without mercy. Korra was amazed at the sight unfolding before her very eyes. Yes, the test might have been the Spirit World, but it felt so real to her when she was in it. Only one how could venture into the Spirit World could ever fell the same, She knew that her physical being was still in the real world underneath the same old gazebo she and Tal would meditate under every now and then. She could only hope that she was safely there and that Tal's apparent madness was contained to only here in the world populated by the spirits. Korra saw Tal attack and Mako repulsed all his advances.

She could remember almost every single battle she had participated in with her love. She remembered many matches with Mako and Bolin when the three of them were the Fire Ferrets for that one season. The one season that ended with them losing to Tahno in the finals only to watch as that madman Amon, later to be discovered as a bloodbender named Noatak. She could remember just how much power the real Mako had with his firebending. The spirit in the form of him seemed to be just as strong. Tal and Mako were forced into a sparring match.

Tal was thankful he was less lethal to the spirits who looked like his friends and sister, but this spirit in the form of Mako was really tough. He seeming unlimited amount energy was dwindling fast and although he still had no control of his actions, he could feel his body begin to ache from fatigue. He feared that soon his little episode of being in the Avatar State would end soon and Mako would still kill him. Or whatever constitutes as death in the Spirit World. His speed was slowing down greatly or Mako was very fast. The chief's attacks were quick and very hard. Tal was barely able to block then, even when in his maddened state.

Korra and Aang were at loss for words, but Roku was silent because he was only watching the fight, or the slaughter. Roku must have known something because he did not seemed to worried that Tal was in the Avatar State and was killing everyone left and right. Korra on the other hand was startled from staring at Roku's silence when she heard more noise from the ring. Tal had found a way around Mako's attacks, or actually, a way over his attacks.

Tal's and Mako's fight by now had degraded into a all out firebending fistfight. Mako lurched into to attack hard when Tal suddenly launched his body over the chief and rolled over the Mako's back and landed on his feet behind his last opponent. Korra watched as Tal landed a bare fist into Mako's armored chest and he knelled over in pain just as Tal landed a punch to the back and then a kick to the legs to make Mako fall to the ground and look up only to see a fireblade pointed right at his neck from Tal. This was when Korra saw Tal's eyes had stop glowing red like the other spirits before he had performed this move. Tal had reverted back to his normal _not killing almost everyone state_ and then finished the test.

Tal looked up to the viewing platform to see Korra and Avatar Aang looking back down. He was sure that this episode of him going nuts was definitely no going to look good for the test. Hell, he was sure that this little fiasco would have him ending up in the mental ward of the Republic City prison when he got back to the real world. His life was probably ruined now for good. Now he would be labeled insane and the world would turn its back on him. He would lose everything all because he got a little too mad when he was taunted by an opponent.

He heard someone speak close enough for him to hear. The person talking ended up being the Mako spirit. It was still on its back and in the form of Korra's husband and Katara's father. The spirit was giving Tal that once smirk that the real Mako gave Tal every now and them to show that he was pleased with the teen's work. "Congrats kid, you just passed both tests." It said as it got off the ground on its own. The spirit walked over to Tal and the two shook hands. "Not only did you pass the firebending test. You also passed the test to see what would happen if you were to lose control of yourself when in the Avatar State." He pointed up over at the three older Avatars. "Only us true spirits here knew that you were going to go into the Avatar State. Those three up there did not."

"A test?" Tal asked the spirit, "I thought I was going insane. I heard a voice call out to me, telling me that he was me."

"That was the point of the test kid," the Mako spirit answered. "When the spirits decided to create two avatars for the world, we had to copy a part of Avatar Korra's soul when she was near death. It has never been done before so we ended up making two Tal spirits reside in you because Korra came back from the brink of death. That second spirit was to go to the next avatar after you but was trapped in you when she survived."

This was quite a explanation for what had happened and soon the three other Avatars descended down onto the ring to join Tal and the spirit. Korra asked the spirit in a fit of rage as to why they had to see Tal go insane and kill for a test. He repeated what he had told Tal as Aang and Roku listened in as well. They couldn't believe such a thing the spirits could do to a person, especially an Avatar. They had given Tal two souls, one becoming the good, the other degraded into evil.

Tal was too confused to listen to the rest of the story, soon the spirit world faded from his view and he returned to the real world to find himself standing in the middle of the gazebo. He had somehow managed to stand while in the Spirit World. Korra was still meditating so he sat down and waited until she returned as well. It was another hour or so before she opened her eyes and saw that Tal was still there. "What do want to hear first?" she asked him, "The good news? Or the bad news?"

He answered with bad first. "The spirits have decided to temporarily remove your ability to airbend and waterbend." She watched him as his look of despair turn into a look of shock. "They will return those powers to you after you can contact these two souls of yours and figure out how to control them and only enter the Avatar State when needed." Tal nodded and she then gave him the good news, which ended up cheering him up a bit. "Because the test to become a master requires only a dozen opponents, which 11 of which you took out non lethally before going all glowy eyed on us, and then you took out the extra enemies. But you reverted back to normal before defeating the master being Mako, so you have truly indeed passed the firebending test and are now considered a master firebender."

She stood up and wrapped him in a hug which she was able to lift him right off the ground. A trademark greeting of her past and something Tal did a lot too. "So, congratulations! Two elements down but now we need to take care of this little split personality of yours." She let go of him and they walked back to her house to discuss how to do it over dinner and tea."

* * *

**So there you have it, another chapter down in the books. I hope you all enjoy it.**

**I will now be working on a chapter where we meet these two very different souls of Tal's and where we find out more about these violent radical Equalists.**

**Also, many thanks to those who have been doing what ever it is that registers as a view or hit on this story. Although I have not posted anything for quite a while, many hits and view are still flowing in. Over 500 this month alone!**

**So thankyou to those who are reading this story still, and many more thanks to those who leave me reviews and fav either me or the story or add this to their alerts.**

**You all are truly the reson I still write considering all the crud I have to do for college and my lousy job every weeknight.**


	30. The Two Tals

**Sorry for yet another ong delay. I got a whole boat load of schoolwork to do just like everyone else here on this site so everyone's stories are being updated less oftern.**

**I'm trying to expand the storyline here in this chapter. If it starts to get confusing, please PM me and tell me how I can improve this.**

* * *

Chapter 30: The Two Tals

Dinner that afternoon wasn't the best for Tal. All he could think about and all everyone at the table could seem to talk about was Tal's little _issue_ after Korra had to tell Mako about it. He in the end had told Jinora, Ikki, Meelo and Rohan who then told their families. If someone wasn't talking about him, Tal could sense that they were staring at him. The only person who seemed to not be getting on his nerves was Katara who was sitting next to him. He assumed it was only because she and the Fire Ferrets had a match later that evening and she wanted to focus on that and not on Tal.

What was really bothering him though was the idea of how he was going to be able to connect to the Spirit World again and search through it to find these two separate souls of his. The really bad part of it was that Korra wanted him to stay on the island tonight with the Airbenders while everyone else went to watch the Fire Ferrets take on the Dragon Flats District Dragons in one of the most talked about matches for the past month. Talking about the match was one of the most popular things Tal did with Katara, that is if the two of them did not manage to get some privacy and starting making out. Now he was stuck having to listen to the match over the radio while the other watched the match live. Korra told him that if he was smart, he would meditate and try to connect with those two souls as soon as possible so he could resume training. Keeping him away from Katara was an incentive for him to do it.

Tal ate his dinner in silent and finished at the same time as Katara. They left the dining room together and they kissed quick outside in the hall before she left to go to her room to gather her gear for the match to leave. Tal was left to go find a place to meditate for the evening. It was getting to cool to stay outside during the night so he found a nice comfy place in the island's library. It seemed like he had only closed his eyes for a few minutes when he awoke to find himself well planted in the Spirit World. He was in a place he had never been before, but it was just like a place he remembered from the real world. He was in the living room of his old home back in Tree Line.

It was just like the day he and his sisters went in to find the house abandoned. Everything was strewn around the place, obviously having been searched by the Equalists. Some of the windows were busted and snow was beginning to creep inside. The only things that seemed to be missing were whatever he and the girls had taken from the home. So Tal had been sent to his home sometime after he and his sisters had last been there. Judging by the amount of decay and snow inside, it was a few months time since the massacre. It was evening and the only light he seemed to find was coming from his old bedroom. Light was permeating under the crack of his closed door and he heard voices, or should he say, heard himself talking.

His curiosity took over and he opened the door to find his room being occupied by two beings, or really be to precise, two exact copies of him. These two souls _were_ him. They looked like him, although dressed differently than him.

One, who Tal guessed was his "good side" soul was sleeping comfortably in the chair next to his old wood desk. He was dressed similarly to what Tal normally wore, but entirely in white. That was why Tal guessed that this was the good soul. The soul who was his "good Side" also wore his gauntlets made by Katara's cousins, and a small array of weapons, a large knife, a machete, and a tomahawk. Weapons he recognized from the ones that hung on the wall in the apartment he shared with his sisters. He had practiced fighting with them, but he never even thought about using them enough that he would walk around with them attached to his belt.

The other soul, who by the theory of elimination must be the "evil side", was lying on the old bed. He was dressed much like the good soul, but instead of white, he was clothed entirely in black. He too wore his gauntlets and weapons, but all of them were coated in stains of dried blood. He was looking at an old news paper clipping that was framed which Tal usually kept on his desk back at home and had even brought along with him to Republic City. The evil Tal was laughing silently as he read the article, obviously amused by the topic it was about.

The evil Tal realized that their guest had arrived and placed the frame on the nightstand before getting up to wake his counterpart. The good Tal woke up and stood up. He walked over to the real world Tal and held out his hand to shake. "Greetings Tal," the spirit spoke as the two shook hands. "It's about time we all met with each other. We need to discuss this matter of how we use the Avatar State or just any of our powers if you become provoked."

"The spirits goofed up on this one big you two," the evil one said. "I say that they did not have the right to strip us of our airbending and waterbending all because I just decided to _kill_ a dozen spirits they decided to add to the test!" He firebended one of those fire blades from his wrist like how he had made Tal do it during the test. " I say we go and demand that they give us back those powers. We are the new Avatar after all. If something was to happen to Korra, our sisters, or worse...something were to happen to Katara, I'll go more insane than I am already!"

"I don't think we can just go an plead for our powers back you two," the real Tal said. "Korra warned me that this is very serious." He pointed a finger at the evil copy of him. "What if you take over and kill someone we love? What if we get branded a terror in the real world and are arrested or killed? If you are in control, I'm in the Avatar State. If we are killed while in the Avatar State, the cycle is broken, and there will be no more Avatars!"

That made the evil side get mad. "Listen you," he said to Tal as he returned the finger to the chest but harder than needed. "I care only about one thing: the well being of the ones we all care about. Our parents were killed and so was our town but our sisters are still alive and now we even have Korra and her family." He picked up another photo frame and tossed it to the real Tal as the good side Tal just kept his distance from this argument. "And you personally care a lot for Katara." The frame contained a picture of Tal and Katara from their "official date" at Kuang's. Tal was in his best clothes and Katara was in that modest dress of hers.

"Here's the thing Tal, as long as those we care about are safe, you and _Mr. Good Guy_ over there are in command of the powers. If something happens to them, I will assume control of the bending, and I'm going to be brutal to anyone who gets in our way to save them. Once they are safe, you take back control. I'm more like a power boost for you when in the Avatar State, I'm just here to give you a whole lot of energy and power when you really need it."

He went to the chair that the good Tal had been sleeping. The good soul had already decided to sit on the end of the old bed and wait for the real Tal and the evil Tal to make a deal. He just watched quietly. Then the real one of the three of them spoke. "So, if we are going to get our powers back," he pointed at the evil soul of his. "You and me need to agree that I will keep them safe, but if need be, you will take over and go nuts on our enemies? I won't agree to those terms until you promise us that you will never go and outright kill. We as the Avatar cannot kill someone, the Avatar can't be the taker of a life. No Avatar in all of history has killed, and I'm not going to be the first!"

The good Tal could have almost swear he saw his evil twin shudder a bit from the change in the terms. The evil one wanted blood whenever he was released, but his power would be needed in the case of a battle with dozen s of enemies. The evil soul, the good soul knew, needed to make the deal with the real Tal. No deal meant no more airbending or waterbending, no bending meant that Tal would be only half of an Avatar, and that cannot happen. But what happened next was a shock to the spirit. "Fine, I'll won't kill anyone, but remember, I cannot be held responsible for anything I do if something happens to them." He held out his hand and waited for the real one of the three of them to shake.

Tal, the real one, took the hand and shook, "Deal".

Over at the Probending Arena, the crowd was all in a trance at the spectacle being performed in from of them. The Fire Ferrets were actually on the verge of losing the second Round, after going down to a tiebreaker in the first round which Katara had to use a lot of energy to win over the Dragon's waterbender who was surprisingly good for the past month. Everyone was watching the daughter of Avatar Korra get hit with attack after attack as she was the last one of the Fire Ferrets still in the ring for the round.

Almost all of the crowd was focused on the match but two of the spectators in a nearly empty private viewing suite were not watching the match. They had their eyes and occasionally a pair of binoculars watching the suite where the Avatar and her friends and family were on the other side of the ring. The two figures knew that no one would see them in there. The lights were off and they were seated in the shadows. They were dressed in all black and had had removed all reflective material from their attire. The one set of binoculars had its lenses covered with tape in a certain style to prevent light from reflecting off of it, alerting someone that the suite was occupied.

"Avatar Korra is in the suite," reported one of the figures, a man barely over the age of 18. "But I don't see that cursed Tal. He isn't in the suite." He had just entered the room during the intermission between the first and second rounds of the match. He had been spying on the Avatar's suite from a closer vantage point.

"I've noticed," replied the other, a man in his middle 40's. "Has the boy even been spotted at all this evening?" He had been sitting in the same chair all evening, occasionally looking through the binoculars at the suite and trying to determine who was all in it.

"Negative, Colonel Doctor." answered the young man. "Our spies we have in place have reported that the new Avatar has not left the island. I think we should take this opportunity to strike now and take care of him or the other Avatar. It should be easier to capture one or both of them now that they are separated."

"Now will not be a good time to strike Commander," the Doctor replied as he took another quick glance through the binoculars at the suite as the bell sounded to signal the end of the round. The daughter of one Avatar, and the girlfriend of the other Avatar, had managed to hold back the Dragons, but she was well spent and looked as if on the verge of collapsing from fatigue. The match was now tied one a piece. "Our numbers are still not strong enough and our arsenal is still not up to capacity. We still need to buy more time."

"More time, Colonel Doctor?" the man sneered, "By the time we get enough agents in place, the two Avatars will have trained together long enough to become unstoppable."

"Soon Commander," the Doctor replied more sternly. "We will have weapons that not even the United Republic of Nations' military can defend against." He knew that the latest weapons the Equalists had been developing were going to change the tide of the conflict onto the side of them. Not even that martyr Hiroshi Sato, the man who invented the Satomobile, electrified glove, and the Airplane, would have been able to believe the powers the Equalists were soon going to control.

The third round started and the two of them watched everyone in their target suite react sadly as the Fire Ferrets were bombarded with attacks. The two of them smiled as they watch as Katara, collapse from fatigue and get thrown out of the ring by a speeding earth disc to the stomach. The crowd gasped in surprise and worry as an emergency crew of medical personnel had to quickly retrieve her from the water. Katara had passed out and she would have drowned if not for the medical team.

"You see Commander," the Doctor told his younger subordinate. "The daughter of Avatar Korra might have a limit, but heed my words, Tal will not be as easy to defeat as you might think. Even Avatar Korra, who is now in her 40's, is still much more powerful than any other bender out there." He looked over at the ring to watch as Hiroshi and Ru manage to knock out two of the Dragons by surprise and now double team on the Dragons' firebender. "But as soon as we have those weapons and the numbers, not even the Avatars will be able to defeat us. And then, after they have been taken care of, we will then begin to rid the world of this curse of bending."

"Fine then Doctor, but we need to act soon." The commander knew that he had a few "special" agents in place throughout the city to strike against the Avatars when called upon. "Those agents I have command over can only be held in my control for only so much longer." He knew mind control could only last so long and the Doctor knew it too.

"Very soon Commander," the Doctor answered. "If you can control those _agents_ of yours for a few more weeks, we can use them on the Avatars at the moment when they are most vulnerable." He watched as his colleague smirked when he remembered what happened in a few weeks...the Probending Championship.

"Doctor? How are you sure that both the Fire Ferrets and the Tree Line Three will be in the championship match? The Avatar's daughter just got sent to the infirmary for exhaustion and..." He was stopped when the crowd roared as the two remaining Fire Ferrets managed to somehow get the win as the two teens knocked out their last opponent with moments to spare. "Never mind"

"Believe me Commander, those two teams will make the finals." The Doctor said as he got out of his chair and put on his large hooded cloak. "Now, may we take our leave of this place before someone discovers we are here?"

The next morning, Katara woke up when she felt the rays of the sun hit her face. She realized that it was morning, but she had no clue as to where she was. She tried to moved and winced in pain as she found out her whole body was sore. She did make herself get up far enough to find out that she was in the arena's infirmary ward for the female probenders. It was a much smaller room than the one for the male benders because the majority of probenders were male. But at least she wasn't alone in the room. Her mother and Tal were napping in two chairs next to her bed.

Only one of the other beds in the room were occupied. It was the one girl, from the all female team, the Kyoshi Island Assassins. The one girl Katara saw who got an accidental hit to the head from a earth disc. She couldn't remember the girl's name, but she knew the girl's helmet shattered from the hit. The girl fell to the ground hard and was bleeding a lot of blood that the officials stopped the match right there. Katara looked over at the girl's bed to see that her head was wrapped in bandages and unconscious but still alive, although she had an IV pumping blood into her arm. A female waterbender was treating her less serious injuries now that her patient was stabilized.

"Well," her mom's voice made her stop looking at the poor injured girl and back at her own visitors. "About time my little water princess woke up." Katara sighed in annoyance as her mother called her by that old pet name of hers. What made it worse was that she saw Tal snicker at hearing that. She had told him weeks before that she never liked to be called a princess, which in response had Tal only calling her princess.

She felt herself blushing a bit. "What happened?" Her voiced sounded dry and weak. "All I remember is feeling so tired and then I passed out." She was given a glass of water by Korra and she drank it all eagerly.

"You passed out and were sent over the edge." Her mother told her. "The medics had to jump in the water to prevent you from drowning. But at least you won three won so the Fire Ferrets have locked in a place for the playoffs." Katara leaned back on her pillow, at least Hiroshi and Ru managed to win without her.

She looked over at Tal who just stood there quietly with his hands in his pockets. "What about you Mr. Split Personality? Did you get to meet your two souls?" Then she noticed what he mother noticed when he came rushing from the island over to the arena. Tal's right eye was no longer the bright green that most earthbenders had, it was supposed to be green but now it was red.

He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. "Yep, and I must say that I better be one heck of a dedicated boyfriend of yours or my dark side told me that he will go and show no mercy to anyone who dares to hurt you."

"That's a good sign, " She told him. "Now what happened to your eye?"

He remained leaning over her. "A reminder to me myself and I, that I'm better not let anything happen you. "

"Now I guess the two of us are just going to have to be stuck spending the rest of our lives together." She grabbed him with her arms and pulled him in for another kiss as her mom sighed at the sight of the two teens. Those two were truly inseparable. Even the spirits wanted them to be together.

* * *

**Hope it was good. I really hope it will continue to make you all want to read more, so keep on reading, faving and let the flood of reviews please happen.**


	31. This Party Has Only Just Begun

**Sorry for yet another long wait between chapters but college and nightly work make it hard to write anything in the very rare free tiem I get.**

* * *

**C**hapter 31: This Party Has Only Just Begun

Katara was discharged late afternoon from the infirmary at the arena. Her parents and Tal were there to take escort her back to Air Temple Island. After a good dinner, Tal took Katara out to the spot where they had first raced each other on a bet. With the setting sun fading into the open ocean, Katara could see the extent of how Tal was changed after his firebending test.

His normally pale green irises of his eyes had been replaced by a brighter green one on his left and a bright red one on his right. When he felt his arm once, she found out that he was wearing his gauntlets, with blades hidden instead of climbing hooks. He even was wearing a belt with scabbards for two swords but now weapon of such was present on him at the moment. This worried her greatly, her Tal had changed. But if for the better or worse, she did not know.

Together they sat on a bench that looked over the cliff edge towards the open sea. Tal just sat there as Katara had already leaned her head to rest on top of his shoulder as they sat next to each other. He turned his head to see that she was looking up at him with those pretty blue eyes she had inherited from Korra. It was just one of those attributes Mako had told him once that attached the firebender to the Avatar when they were teenagers. Tal also had to tell they chief that there were a few other _characteristics_ that Mako loved Korra for and which he loved Katara for. This resulted in a good punch to Tal's shoulder by Mako. The chief really did not like it when the teen reminded Mako how very beautiful his and Korra's daughter was.

The two teens sat there until late until evening. Mostly it was silence with a few short discussions about the upcoming Probending playoffs which Tal started to break the silence. But Katara tried to break the silence more often by kissing her boyfriend every so often that he was becoming frustrated that he couldn't even speak properly sometimes. If anything which Mako had warned Tal never to do with Katara was to actually take place, Tal feared it would have been started by Katara not him.

All he was, was a just a pawn in a rather cruel game of love. He wanted to keep his girlfriend happy, but he also would like to live to see his next birthday and not be killed by a overprotective father who just so happened to be a former probender turned chief of police. Tal was sure that Korra too would be the death of him if she ever found out that he had done something wrong r mean to Katara. The age old rivalry between a man and his in-laws was sure to exist if, but more likely when, he and Katara ever do end up getting married. This issue was already being repeatedly asked by reporters after the conclusions of certain matches at the arena.

And it was going to boil over soon. The next week, after the regular season had concluded, the teams who qualified for the playoffs and their sponsors, were invited to attend a annual ball. It was the social high point of probending all year. Katara, Tai and Tay looked forward to going, and so did Hiroshi and Ru, but Tal really didn't want to go. He knew who else would be there, the press. Everyone with a pen and a camera were going to try and get an interview with Republic City's most mysterious couple, Katara, the daughter of Avatar Korra and Chief Mako, and the newly discovered Avatar from the Earth Kingdom, Avatar Tal.

He knew he was going to get pelted with questions about him and Katara. Questions about his training. Questions about why there are two Avatars living at the same time. Questions about how he feels about being an Avatar. And the list in his mind went on and on. But one detail kept him even more worried, The Equalists. They had not been heard from since the article about the execution of his parents back in the summer. Now it was late fall and not a single thing had been heard from them. Tal had a feeling that something would happen soon. The Equalists were not people who would just disappear and never be seen again.

They were up to something. But what?

Nothing really happen out of the ordinary heading up to the evening of the ball. The Tree Line Three won in a second round knockout to finish the season, but had qualified weeks before. The Fire Ferrets had also qualified after the miracle win against the Dragon Flats District Dragons, where Katara had ended up in the infirmary. Most of the news in the papers were about who was going to be at the ball. The council members, team sponsors, certain movie stars, some musicians and singers, and Korra with Mako in two because she was the Avatar, and Mako was the chief of police.

But one the main stories being circulated, other than which team had the best chance of winning the championship, was the rumor that Tal and Katara would either break up due to the fact that they may face off against each other in the championship match, or they would get engaged after it was all over. Tal was sure that he and Katara's relationship was safe, but he was sure not going to propose to her in the middle of the probending arena in front of thousands.

When the evening of the ball did at last finally come, Tal found himself standing in the middle of the practice ring on Air Temple Island. Katara and her parents were taking their time getting ready supposedly, according to Aang who had to leave to get his fiancé, Jazzy, over at the theatre. Somehow it sounded more to Tal like Mako was telling Katara to put on a different dress. They had gone out on dates whenever they could and she would normally were a dress when going out for dinner with him. For the sake of their privacy, they went in disguise, he was some worker named Mal and she was a waterbending healer named Kay.

Tonight however, they need to be themselves. So Tal was sure she was being forced to wear a modest Water Tribe dress that he had seen her in before on a past date. He was already in his new everyday attire. The long coat with the hood down, a new pair of Water Tribe fur boots instead of his old pair he wore back up in Tree Line, and of course, his weapons. He looked like he had just come out of the taiga woods that were south of his home town. The goal was to show the press where he was from, not Republic City, but the small town that was massacred by Equalists.

Tai and Tay were picked by Hiroshi and Ru an hour before at the apartment. Both twins were wearing dresses native to the Tree Line region. Tay looked like any waterbender in her blue dress lined with fur. Tai, the firebender of the family, wore a dress of similar nature, but in red instead of blue.

Tal had been getting bored by now of waiting for Katara and her parents, so he began to practice some basic airbending moves. It was nice to have the power back but his intensive airbending training would not be formally starting until after the playoffs. However, he still knew some basics so he began to move the piles of fallen leaves on the ground around and up into the air with gusts of air.

He had been at it for a few minutes when the tornado of wind and leaves that he was creating around him stopped when his concentration was broken by Mako's voice. "You're going to a ball Tal, not going into battle. You don't need to show up to this armed to the teeth." Hundreds of leaves were falling back to the ground as Tal spun around to see Mako in his dress uniform with Korra next to him in one of her own traditional Water Tribe dresses she wore at dinners or council meetings.

"It's the traditional attire of any man from Tree Line, Chief," Tal replied with a grin on his face. "Almost all adult male back up there carried weapons like this everywhere, nonbenders and benders alike." He used metalbending to make the blades shoot out under his wrists from his gauntlets. "Besides, I have this feeling..."

"Don't worry about any Equalists Tal," Korra told him as she wrapped her arms around one Mako's arms as they walked over to him. "There will be dozens of police officers patrolling the exposition hall. No one in their right mind would want to attack a place with so much police around it and especially with two Avatars in there too." She turned back to the house to yell for Katara. "Hurry up princess! We're going to be late if you don't get out her now!"

Seconds later, Katara was stumbling out the door trying to put on her short heeled shoes. As Tal had figured, she was dressed in one of her Water Tribe dresses and had styled her hair into a nice arrangement instead of her usual hairstyle that mimicked her mother's style decades before. "You know? We would not be running late if you two would have just let me were the dress I was already wearing." She would have kept arguing but stopped when she looked up to see her boyfriend's new clothes. "Wow! Look at you Tal! Who knew that the whole _tribal look_ would look so well on you handsome. But what's with the weapons? We are going to a ball, you are not going out into the wilderness to hunt!"

"But _Princess_." Tal remarked as he smiled at seeing Katara wince at being called that pet name of hers. "It's not for hunting. It's for all the boys who might try to get to close to you tonight because you look so absolutely amazingly beautiful this evening." She really blushed from that one. She couldn't even say anything back at him, just walked elegantly over to her date, wrapped an arm around the arm he offered her, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Too bad my parents are right there." She whispered to him. "Or I would have lost all control right there and we would be on the ground making out right now."

"Maybe at a later time sweetheart." He whispered back. "But right now we need to get to that party or we will be late." They then proceeded to make their way to the ferry down at the island's pier. After a short 10 minute trip, they were being shown their way to their seats at different tables in the main ballroom of the city's exposition hall which was close to the arena.

They layout was what it had always been for the last decade. The idea of a ball before the playoffs made it for a celebration to toast all the teams who had played in the league that year. Hundreds of small tables dotted the room. In the center of the room was a dance floor which Tal was certain he was going to have to slow dance with Katara in front of hundreds of people. next to a stage on which sat more long tables for the team sponsors, league officials, and special guests like the council members. Dozens of banners displaying the various teams names and logos lined the walls of the large room.

The ball's opening ceremony was beginning in a few more minutes and the room's lights were still on so Tal and Katara were ushered by a attendant of the ball to their table which was already occupied by the remaining members of the Tree Line Three and the Fire Ferrets. They were the only two teams sharing a table. Every other team had their own. Tal pointed this out to Katara who told him it was because every other team had to get their own because those players had brought dates who were not also players. Tal had to look around for a bit before the lights were turned down low and a spotlight shown onto the stage. Katara had been right, all the other tables were filled or close to filled and everyone else's date was someone who wasn't from another team.

The opening ceremony began with a few speeches by the city's mayor, the league president, a very elderly man named Toza who was one of the first probenders. And even a short speech also from Korra who talked about how her predecessor, Avatar Aang had started the idea of a place where benders could use their skills in a safe way and still be allowed to fight. The speeches were followed by a introduction of the teams who had qualified for the playoffs. The Fire Ferrets were the last team to be introduced with the other city division teams. The Tree Line Three also got introduced last with the other teams from world division.

Most of the introductions had been with light polite clapping, some of the more liked teams got a bigger applause. Both the Fire Ferrets and the Tree Line Three received a large amount of applause, along with some cat calls when Katara's and Tal's names were called. Another very short speech from the head referee about how cheating now will mean immediate forfeiture of a match in the playoffs and opening ceremony was over with and the dinner began.

Whether it was the cheap meals provided for the partygoers, the portion sizes being a little small, or everyone just wanted to get up to move their legs, the entire room had soon congregated onto the central dance floor. Tal looked around and saw his sisters already dancing with their boyfriends and no one seemed to take notice. Katara had already dragged him along onto the dance floor and the two of them were dancing together near their teammates. Nobody seemed to even notice that a few meters away was Korra and Mako dancing.

Tal's fears soon came to head when the band that was play finished their first number ad went right into a well known slow song. Katara, knowing how little Tal knew about dancing, took the lead as the two of them put their arms around the right areas and began to spin slowly around in a small area. He was still a little nervous about dancing in public. "You can relax pretty boy," she told him as they continued to dance. "No one around here even seems to know we are here.

"I'm not nervous about the dancing or the crowd right now princess," Tal told her as he began to take the lead for a bit. "I'm nervous because of the look your dad keeps giving me over there." He nodded his head to the side. Katara looked over to indeed see her father scowling at Tal. "I don't know why he is doing this now? We've danced dozens of times within sight of your parents."

"Well Mr. Avatar," Katara said as she moved are arms around Tal's neck to get the blood flowing in them again. "Maybe he is doing it because you have your arms pretty much right above my butt so maybe he will stop it if you were to rise your arms up a bit." He conceited and moved his arms and hands up a few inches in her back. The next time he saw Mako, the chief wasn't giving him the look anymore. The song finally ended and the band broke out into another fast song. Katara, instead of making Tal dance with her, the two of them walked off the dance floor and back to their table.

The ball continued well into the evening. Tal and Katara kept dancing every now and then, taking break only to get punch or use the restroom. During one stop in the action just after midnight and the crowd began to thin, Tal waited outside the bathrooms with Ru and Hiroshi as the girls went into freshen up again before the all left to go out on the town before calling it a day. The Fire Ferret boys asked him if it would be okay if they took the girls out all night an didn't have them back at the apartment until way into the morning.

Tal had just given them the okay, as long as he wasn't made an uncle in a few months, when the girls finally came out. He gave his sisters the _I-will-be-watching-you_ gesture as they walked away with Ru and Hiroshi. He didn't know who he could trust less, the boys, or his own sisters. He would have kept worrying about if it wasn't for Katara who had to give him a quick kiss to the lips to snap him out of it. She started to giggle a bit when his faced reddened a bit.

They went back into the main hall to see that most of those who had decided to stay had invaded the dance floor for yet another series of slow dances. There had to be well over two hundred people still there and it would have been hard to find Korra and Mako if it wasn't for the fact that the Avatar and Chief were up at their table on the stage drinking and talking with the Airbender representative of the council, Jinora. Sitting next to the adult Airbender was her earthbender husband Skoochy, who had returned from a month long undercover job for Mako.

The conversation being spoken between the adults wasn't understandable until Tal and Katara had already walked onto the stage and were only feet from the table. "I'm telling you Mako" Skoochy said as he finished his drink. "I went there with a team and we found the entire White Lotus compound at the South Pole completely abandoned."

Korra spoke, "What about the village nearby? My parents are still live there." She was from the South Pole and the White Lotus built a massive compound to contain her as she was trained from a little girl well into her teens, denying her any life outside of the compound. She could care less about the White Lotus, she just wanted to make sure her parents, who continued to live down there in that small village. They only just in recent years began to spend their winters up in Republic City.

"The village was fine Korra, " Skoochy said as he realized they had company. "Well what do we have here? Katara, I was gone for a month and I lost a bet because I thought you and Tal here would be engaged by now." Katara and Tal couldn't speak so they just sat in two empty seats. The adult earthbender was probably lying and Korra and Mako burst out into laughter. "Now, as I was saying," he continued, "The village was un touched but the entire compound was cleaned out. None of the villagers ever even saw anyone approach the old place or anything suspicious. We went in and nothing was left but ice and snow...and this." He took out a busted Equalist mask.

"You think that the old White Lotus diehards tried to fight the Equalists?" Mako asked.

"I don't know how any crazy old nutcase like those old folks who controlled Korra's life for so long could even last five minutes against even a dozen Equalist agents." He leaned in a bit and dropped his voice. "I think that the branch of the old White Lotus is gone for good now. Just us Lotus members who serve the Avatar first and foremost rather than control the Avatar."

"So the Equalists actually did something good for once?" Tal replied with a smirk.

"I wouldn't think about this too lightly kid, "Skoochy told the teen Avatar. "The Equalists might now have their hands on a weapon used during the Hundred Year War by the Dai Li, a brainwashing contraption. This Doctor nut job might now have the means to turn almost anyone in the world into a radical Equalist sleeper agent. And if he does have it, we don't know how long he has had it for." The man looked over at the crowd who continued to dance as they did not know what danger they were now in. "The question now is...who might be a sleeper Equalist?"

* * *

**Yet again, thankyou to all who read this and fav/ follow it.**

**Many more thanks to those who leave reviews. I have been getting one or two a chapter but they all seem to be positive. Many people seem to like the story.**

**I see that people still show up as hits or views on my story at least a few time everyday and I hope that I can still get more readers to add this story to their fav list or follow list. No offense to those stories about all that high school drama that will never happen in the Avatar universe, but I think I'm keeping this story as close to the real deal as I can. **


	32. The Playoffs, and The Surprise

**Well, I'm back with another chapter!**

**I have decided that the storyline is going to have some things injected into it that might anger some fans of the series but I would like to remind readers that this is fanficion and most writers pretty much write whatever their hearts desire. So suspect some things that might not appear to belong in the Avatar universe and I might just be killing off someone who migh be a bit of a fav to everyone. Want to guess who?**

* * *

Chapter 32: The Playoffs, and The Surprise

The good thing about receiving bad news like the Equalists' new weapon happening when the probending playoffs take place? Mako could double the police presence in the city without ever having to alert the rest of the council or even tell his own officers about the brainwashing machine their enemy most likely now had control over. Everyone would just take the extra cops walking around to be just added security during the playoffs.

The first day of matches of the two week long playoffs had no scheduled match for with Katara or Tal who decided to spend the afternoon and evening listening to the matches over the radio in Tal's apartment over a romantic mea. Somehow, he managed to cook with little to no help from his sisters who were yet again out on dates with Ru and Hiroshi, but the team captains put out a curfew to make sure their teams could still perform well the next night in their separate matches.

So at least until 11 that evening, when his sisters were to return home by, Tal had Katara all alone with him in the kitchen. The two of them were eating and discussing the new threat the Equalists had. The only thing that could even be remotely connected to the Equalists was the massive public anti-bending rally that occurred in Ba Sing Se earlier that morning to correspond with the starting of the probending playoffs in Republic City. Other public protests also took place in the capital and other large cities all over the Untied Republic.

The protests were not violent, but the one in the capital city of the Earth Kingdom was however brutally put down by the Dai Li, the earthbender state police of Ba Sing Se. The one that took place in Republic city had only a handful of arrests but the Dai Li had earthbended hundreds of rocks into the massive crowd and injured many, but without any deaths. This made the council convene early that afternoon and by evening, were still in session.

After a few minutes of talking about the Equalists, their discussion now had gone back to probending. While the two of them sat next to each other at the kitchen table eating the soup Tal had made from scratch, Katara had found some old scrap paper and was drawing brackets of how the two teams of theirs would fare. The day had already seen two upsets, one was likely to happen because of the closely seeded teams. But the match between the low ranked Kyoshi Island War hawks and the third seeded Ember Island Phoenixes ended with the War Hawks winning in a sudden death tiebreaker.

No one knew how they had done it, but Katara found her well designed bracket for Tal now made utterly useless by this. She was furious for this because now that meant in Tal's team won tomorrow night, they would face the War Hawks in the second round, but Tal calmed her down when he told her the War Hawks had only won the last time against the Three Line Three during the regular season because of some dumb mistakes that the three of them would never do again.

He was proven later when both of their teams advanced into the second round on third round knockouts. Two days later, Tal calmed Katara down about her fears of the Kyoshi Island team when he alone managed to get a hat trick in only the second round. Katara had been so distracted with Tal's upcoming match which was right after hers, that she was knocked out of the ring each round but Ru won it in the end with round hat trick of his own.

By the end of the first week, the playoffs had been played into the quarter-final round. Katara was much better for their next two matches up to this point and she was beginning to think the Ferrets would make the City Division Finals for sure again. Tal and his sisters were won in a spectacular fashion in a upset over the top ranked Badgermoles of Ba Sing Se to end the first week and advance on into the World Division semi finals. The Fire Ferrets were looking good but the Dragons were still in it as well.

A three day break was then on the schedule to let the remaining teams rest, which was when Tal and Katara had their only date of the week after the dinner during opening day. The break was well needed because Tal and his sisters were beginning to really feel the fatigue of playing every other day rather than once or twice a week.

Both of his sisters were almost always sleeping or icing their bruises and Tal had already cut practices to only a hour a day now. Katara and the Fire Ferrets weren't doing any better physically. Ru had screwed up his shoulder good halfway through the semi final match and Hiroshi was almost falling asleep at anytime. Katara, she could only stay awake now with generous amounts of Tal's favorite energy tea. If not, see was passed out sleeping usually on her bed or on the couch at Tal's apartment. Tal, although an Avatar, could also feel the effects, his attempts to airbend had now degraded into nothing but little puffs of air. All six of them were now reaching their limits.

The next round had to be what Tal considered the hardest thing had ever done. He was already tired as hell, and the match went into yet another sudden death tie breaker. In the end, what was supposed to be a one on one duel with bending against his firebender opponent dragged on into a all out fist fight which lasted a few agonizing minutes as the crowed watched in suspense. In the end, Tal succeeded with a completely legal punch to the guy's gut, and then to the side of his head. With this win he and his sisters were now in the division finals. They rested for the next match and watched the Ferrets win in stunning fashion the next evening.

A whole day of sleeping before going to the arena to watch Katara, Hiroshi, and Ru ended up being a good thing. After the match, he got another good night's sleep and slept pretty much until a few hours before the match. The same was said for Tai and Tay, who alongside him ended up surprising the crowd by knocking out the Fire Nation's Capital Island Raven Eagles in the late Second Round to win the Division.

The Fire Ferrets however, did not get the opportunity of a whole day of rest before their next match. But somehow, they managed to beat the Dragons one last time because Katara was being fueled to waterbend more powerfully by two major factors, the night had a full moon, and she was being a bit on the moody side because she was on her period again. No one knew that last little detail other than Tai and Tay who too had the bad timing of the cycle but they could sleep it off. Katara took care of it by taking her mood out on the Dragons. She got yellow fanned halfway through the match for unnecessary roughness with her waterbending but the Dragons stay away from her attacks the rest of the match only to be taken out be her still.

The finals match was now set. The Fire Ferrets verse The Tree Line Three. But now the press was going to have a field day. The new Avatar verses his girlfriend: the daughter of the other Avatar. Tal's fears were fully realized when he woke up the next morning when Tai threw the rolled up morning paper at his face. On the front cover, was yet again another article with large pictures of him and Katara. Now the press had gone to say that if either won, the two of there were getting married by the end of the year.

This was a false as could be and Tal knew that whoever had written this was probably about to have a rough visit from chief Mako very soon. On his way to the ferry to Katara's house, Tal's feeling about the public's view of him and Katara was reassured when he walked past a few cafes opened and already crowded with patrons. He overheard at least three separate people saying the article was worthless and was not true at all.

But he was surprised when he was met by Mako at the ferry dock. He had just come from the island and told Tal to go back home. Katara was still sleeping and didn't want to have any unnecessary distractions before the match tomorrow night. This included any interaction with Tal. She had gone way into _probender mode_ in her mind, not even Tal would have been able to shake her from it. It was just another one of those characteristics he loved about Katara, her determination to make sure she won. Either it was a race against him, or the probending championship also against him, she was willing to do just about anything to win. It was something she got from both her parents, Mako's _cool under fire _determination, and Korra's _deal with it _attitude.

He was just about to start walking back to the apartment when Mako grabbed him by the arm from behind. "Not so fast, Tal." He told him, "I need to show you something we found recently. I'm taking you to my headquarters downtown." Tal was confused by the remark, but Mako told him that he was not under arrest or anything like that. But rather, it was to show him something new about the Equalists.

The walk to get to the place was going to be long, but the chief always had a Police Satomobile near the ferry dock ready to pick him up and take him wherever he was needed. The bad thing however was that these Satomobiles could only have two people up front, which in this case was another cop who was the driver, and Mako who would ride shotgun up front. Tal was going to have to sit in the back, where those arrested were kept.

This little overlooked detail lead to some laughs from the chief who opened the back door so Tal could get in. As soon as he was in, he slammed the door shut. The door could not be opened from the inside and the windows were lined with bars. Tal was literally trapped. Mako got in up front and jokingly gave Tal his rights as they began the drive to the headquarters of Republic City's police force. When they did reach it, Mako did let the teen out and the two of them walked to the large building which had the large statue of Chief Toph Bei Fong on its facade. The driver stayed with the car out in the courtyard, standing by to be ready to drive the chief wherever he needed to be next.

Up the many stairs, through the massive doors, though a maze of rooms and hallways, all while having to pass security checkpoints. This would have lasted much longer for anyone else, but the cops in charge of these checkpoints knew Mako was cleared to pass through all of this without being stopped, and Tal was cleared to do so as well because he was the Avatar. Instead of going to what Tal suspected was Mako's office, there were signs to lead the way, Mako lead him past the office and down another side hall which had little human traffic. They stopped in front of a door that had big block letters on it: Evidence.

Mako opened the door and entered with Tal following close behind. Inside was a large room filled with many tall shelves and boxes filled with what Tal assumed was the evidence of around a century of crime in Republic City. A metalbender cop who was already inside lead them to a smaller examination room in which Bolin sat at a table with a single white sheet over it. "Two of Bolin's metalbenders found these and a whole lot more of them in the back of a truck when it was pull over for no license plates." Mako said as he ripped the sheet off the table. "It turned out the driver was an Equalist agent and even managed to use one of the smaller versions of the examples to harm one of the metalbenders."

Tal was shocked to see what lay on the table before him. Bore loaded fire sticks, one of the Equalists wonder weapons they were trying to create years before when Ta was still a little kid back up in Tree Line. The original name for these new weapons was _Fire Sticks_ as the weapons were nothing more than thin long metal pipes connected to hard carved sticks of wood. The plans called for the user to load the thing up with a small metal projectile that was later propelled out the pipe at get speed and force via a controlled explosion later with a separate smaller explosion starting the reaction. Tal had heard the name of the designer of these things had the last name of Gun. Some Equalists years before had began to refer to his contraptions as _guns_. Everyone had thought Gun was mad for trying to invent such a device.

Bolin got up from his seat and picked up the small example of the new weapons. "Supposedly," he told them as he pointed the thing at a wall, "Last night, this Equalist was transporting a whole shipment of these things and now I got a metalbender in the hospital due to being hit by the projectile. The guy is going to survive, but the Equalist in question pulled another one out and then used it on himself." So now their only led was now a corpse in the police's morgue.

Tal knew what the development of such weapons would do. It would give the Equalists now a very good advantage against benders. The weapons took a long time to reload between uses, and were somewhat inaccurate at long ranges, but that one metalbender had only survived because he had been wearing a suit of metal. A non protected target would most likely die from the impact or die by bleeding out. If the Equalists had enough of these _guns_, their dream of world without bending now became more possible than ever before. "So Tal," Mako asked him. "Do you know what in the world are these things? And if so, what can they fully do?"

"They are called _guns_ chief," Tal answered, "And were are in a whole world of trouble if the Equalists have any more of these. These things just leveled the playing field, any Equalist can now have a good chance to kill any bender or nonbender. We need to stop this now before people get killed!"

"What!," Mako yelled at him in anger, "If you knew how dangerous these thing were, why didn't you ever tell us!"

"Because everyone back then though they would never work!" Tal screamed back at him, which was not a smart thing to do. "Most of the early prototypes made during my childhood my dad told me had backfired and killed or maimed the user usually! He told me the project was scrapped after a year of work and never tried again." He picked up the smaller gun and held it in his hand like he was going to fire it. "Somehow, they got someone to try again with these things because the original designer was the last to die from the early prototypes. Whoever designed these most be a raving evil genius. A technologically proficient genius!"

"You think _The Doctor_, was the one to make these?" Bolin asked.

"Maybe, but I think so." Tal answered. "My parents old me and my sisters once that _The Doctor_ was a medical expert and never really understood technology. Whoever, made these in my opinion is even more nuts and sadistic than _The Doctor_ himself!" These guns could possibly bring the end of the world itself.

With this new development, Mako ordered the warehouse where the rest of the weapons were being kept to double its security. He added more guards at the docks. He tripled security at the arena. It was just like all those years ago when he, Bolin, and Korra were going into the championship match against the Wolfbats, and Amon threatened to attack the arena unless the match was cancelled. The match went on and Amon still attacked with his followers, many of which had disguised themselves into the crowd.

The Wolfbats won via cheating and Amon stripped them of their bending by later was discovered to be bloodbending his victims. Tahno was one of his victims, he wasn't himself until later when Korra gave him back his waterbending. Mako was sure now that the Equalists were planning to attack at the championship match.

By noon, Tal and Mako were taking the ferry back to the island to tell Korra about the new weapons. But instead of going with Mako to see his mentor, Tal went off in the direction of Katara's room to see how she was doing. He wanted to tell her about the guns found and suspected her to be sleeping in her bed to rest and be ready to try and beat him and his sisters the next evening. However, when he approached her door, he found it open and slowly peeked his head into her room. He assumed that this would be a safe tactic because she once told him that she would always lock her door and close the blinds before ever changing , so he assumed that he would not look like a pervert for sneaking into her room without knocking on the door.

What he found was Katara sleeping not in her bed, but instead in the chair at her desk. She had dosed off, her head laying on top of a mess of scrap paper. She must have been planning this during the night because she was wearing an old Fire Ferrets team t-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms. Tal kept his distance, Katara was not one who liked to be awoken at all when she was sleeping soundly. He stayed in the doorway and spoke her name loudly.

Katara awoke on the third mention of her name with a startled snort. She took a few seconds to try and remember where she was and what she had been doing. She had been going over game plans for the match, she had been at it for over 6 hours before she just fell asleep. She groggily turned to see who had woke her and Tal saw her eyes bulge when she saw it was him. "What in the hell are you doing here!?" She yelled at him as she got out of her chair and stormed up to him. "I told my parents that neither you nor your sisters were to go anywhere near my room. Are you spying on me?"

"I'm not spying on you or the rest of the Fire Ferrets, Katara!" Tal yelled at her although she was only a few feet away from him now. "Your dad just took me downtown to show me some new weapons the Equalists just created." He slowly began to move closer to her. "Everyone is now in very grave danger. These new weapons can allow anyone to kill almost anything! I came here to tell you! I'm not here to spy on you!"

"You're lying!" Katara screamed at him as she pushed him away from her. Tal nearly lost his balance and fell backwards on to the floor. "You just want to keep me from thinking how to beat you so that you can win tomorrow!" Tears were beginning to appear on her face. "Do you even know how much I care about probending!? It's been my life ever since I was little and I always wanted to win!" Now Katara was really pouring out the tears, Tal just stood his ground and let her yell at him. "But now I have to face you and you're here telling me the Equalists have some other crazy new weapon! You are lying to me Tal! After all the time we've spent together and now you are lying to me!"

That now got Tal mad, "Katara! I'm not lying, go ask your dad. He showed it these new weapons, and I knew just what kind of terror they can cause. The world has just turned for the worse, Katara." He quickly grabbed her upper arms so that he could look down and right into her eyes. "I like probending too Katara, but I love you more, and now we are all in danger. I could care less about if me and my sisters win or lose tomorrow night. I'm an Avatar and your mom and I both have to protect the world from crazy people who are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way of world domination."

Katara tried to wrestle out of Tal's grip, but he was too strong. "Tal, I need to be left alone. I just can't help but feel that I we can beat you and the Ferrets have never won the championship, we always lose it. I want to make my family proud when we win it." She finally squirmed enough to break his hold. "I never thought after we started going out that we would ever have go against each other for the championship." She paused before she could manage the courage to say it. "I thought you were going to lose that last match."

She closed her eyes tight as more tears poured down her face. "I need to win Tal, I just can't be your girlfriend. I need to be the captain of a winning team. I need to know that I can succeed in something without the help from my parents' positions in society, or my aunt's wealth, or my relationship with you, the new Avatar." She opened her eyes but looked down at her bedroom's floor, unable to look Tal in the face. "I need to show the world that I'm not just the daughter of one Avatar and the girlfriend of another. I want to be respected by everyone for just being me!"

And with that, she pushed him hard out through the door. He slammed hard to the floor out in the hallway as she slammed her bedroom door shut. Tal got up and was walking at a brisk pace out the door into the courtyard where he found Mako and Korra just standing there looking at him.

He just walked past them towards in the direction of the docks. Fuming in anger at what had just happened.

* * *

**Doesn't every relationship have moments like that? It's a plot twist I decided to put in because I think that those two are getting along all to well.**

**Otherwise, please don't be mad at me for adding firearms into the Avatar universe. They are nothing more than muzzle loaded kinds that are very innacurate and take forever to load.**

**Finally, thankyou to those who contnue to read and hopefully continue read now with guns coming into the game.**

**And many thanks to those who add this stoy to their alerts, fav the story or me as an author, and especially if you leave me a review.**


	33. Let's Break Some Rules

**Well, now that thanksgiving is now over, I have had finally enough time to put out another chapter. **

**The whole plot is beginning to take fold and we will learn more now about our bad guys in this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 33: Let's Break Some Rules

Mako and Korra just stood there wondering why Tal was looking so mad as he went past them. But soon Katara yelling and crying for Korra made her come running to her daughter's room. Mako, being the over protective father that he was, ran towards the dock to try and catch Tal to find out what the boy had done to his little girl.

He barely caught up to Tal as the boy was just about to board the ferry back to the mainland. He grabbed Tal by the shoulder and yanked him off the gangway to the ferry. His over protectiveness he had learned from Korra's father Tonraq suddenly took over and the firebender grabbed Tal by the collar of his shirt. "What did you do?" he asked him. "What did you do my little girl?"

"I went to tell her about the guns," Tal tried to say as his air supply was being restricted a bit. "She thought I was spying on her and the Ferrets. She then goes into this rant about how she needs to make a name for herself and not be just known to the world as the daughter of you and Korra." He gasped a bit when Mako released his hold of him.

"Wait a minute here Tal," Mako said. "You mean to say that my daughter is right now crying her guts out in her room because she is having an identity crisis! She has never told me and Korra about that. We just thought she loved probending a lot." It was kind of saddening to him that Katara would feel such a need to be known as a captain of a champion team. He had always thought Katara would want to learn how to be a healer to use her waterbending for a good cause and help society.

"I think that Katara and me just need to put our relationship on hold for a bit, Chief." Tal said, now beginning to let go of the fear that Mako was about to kill him. "Doesn't stuff like this happen to other couples? Didn't you and Korra have stuff like this happen to you two when you were dating?"

"Yes we did Tal, and a lot was before me and her were even dating. Actually it started off back when I was dating Asami. Korra back then I thought she was just some average overly confident Water Tribe girl who was one of Bolin's many fan girls."Mako told Tal as the two of them walked over to sit on a stack of wooden crates lying nearby. "Although, I doubt that many couples ever had to fight a Equalist rebellion while dating. I do agree that maybe you two should then take some time to be away from each other, but that isn't going to work well because you will need to go against each other tomorrow night."

"She told me that she was sure that we would lose during the last round and we would never had to go against the Fire Ferrets for all the Yuans." Tal told him as he buried his face into his hands as he was beginning to become really saddened by the idea that Katara was hoping he would lose. "She was hoping I was going to lose!"

"Don't take it so hard on yourself Tal" Mako told him as he patted boy on the shoulder who he had only a few minutes before had been holding him by the collar. "Me and Korra had issues like that all the time. We have betted on each other all the time, and we still do!"

"I'm worried about tomorrow, Chief. If me and my sisters win, Katara might just lose it and break up with me." Tal's muffled voice sounded as he spoke into his hands. "If we break up, Ru and Hiroshi might feel bad too and break up with Tai and Tay. I can't ruin any of their lives. In addition, how am I going to be able to come over here to the island and learn to be an Avatar from Korra if Katara is nearby brooding about losing to me?" He was really stuck with a problem. "But if we lose, my sisters might not forgive me, and the press might view me as a weak Avatar."

"But what if you do win and she doesn't go all sad eyes on you?" Mako asked as he just look out across the bay at the city. "Wasn't your plan to propose to her at her birthday next week?"

"It was going to do that...until I found out she was having a identity issue at the moment, Chief!"

"Well, then don't fight her." He told Tal. "Do what you and your sisters did the first time you two had to fight each other. You go after Ru and my nephew, and your sisters go after my daughter."

No Tal was beginning to lose his temper with the man. "I would do that Chief if it wasn't for the fact that when we did that, we only could tie them. The Fire Ferrets and us both got much better. What if it goes down to tiebreakers like then?"

"You're forgetting Tal that you and your sisters have one advantage over the Ferrets." Mako said as he stood up. He offered his hand to Tal but the Tal stood up on his own. "You three are the offspring of two former Equalists. Long before you three received any formal training for bending, you three were raised and trained to be Equalists by your parents."

"You mean we should chi block them in the tiebreakers instead of using our bending?" Tal asked, "Isn't that illegal?"

"Actually Tal, it's not!" Mako replied at him with his arms stretched out. "Remember that I was a probender too and it is nowhere listed in the rules that you cannot chi block someone during tiebreakers. It's only illegal during normal rounds because you would need to cross a zone line to get close enough to your opponent. Besides, almost all probenders solely know only how to bend, they can't block your attacks at all."

"Okay, so if we use Equalist tactics on them, we might win." Tal said as he pointed up the cliff towards the direction of where Katara's room would be. "What about Katara? She will need a lot more convincing to not just break up with me over losing the match."

"Tal boy, I suspect that Korra is well on her way to convincing our daughter to not go all glowy eyes on you over a loss. If she loses probending in her life, she would at least get to keep you still. Besides, if you two did really break up, every teenage girl on the planet will want to be your girlfriend just because you are the Avatar. Remember all that fan mail you get, including all those letters from girls begging you to date them?"

"Chief, you should know that it is your daughter and my sisters who read all my fan mail for me while I am training with Korra. If they read one they don't like, Tai simply burns it to ashes. Only a few ever pass the test to get read by me." Mako chuckled at the comment, it was a good idea to have the women read those instead of Tal.

Then Mako tried to change the subject to stop Tal from worrying about Katara any further. "What about those new Equalist weapons?" It probably wasn't the best question to ask a stressed out teenage boy who could bend multiple elements. "Do you think that they will attack an arena filled with innocent civilians and hundreds of cops?"

"If The Doctor's plan is to really kill off all benders and any nonbender who sympathizes with benders. I am sure he will try to attack then and with a whole lot of agents." Tal told him as he sat back down on the crate and covered his face with his hands again. "I'm beginning to wish I lost that last match. Katara would not be mad at me right now and I could spend the match looking around the arena for any hidden Equalists and...!"

"I'm not mad at you anymore Tal." A very familiar voice spoke from behind him and the chief. The two of them turned their heads to see Korra and Katara standing there behind them. Korra had her hands on her daughter's shoulders as Katara was still trying to wipe away the tears with her harm and it appeared she had been pouring out tears for well now twenty minutes. "My mom calmed me down. It looks like my dad hasn't killed you or at least arrested you yet." She run over to him and hugged him, saying that she was sorry for lashing out like that.

"Well sweetheart," he spoke into her ear as she continued to cling onto him. "At least after tomorrow I'll never have to fight against you ever again in probending. I'm officially retiring after tomorrow's match."

"What about your sisters?" Katara murmured as she kept clinging to him.

"Tay wants to become a healer and Tai wants to train to be a cop, those two had women like the woman you were named after, and the two Bei Fong women to look up as role models back in the day. So the Tree Line Three will be disbanded as a team as of tomorrow night."

"So what exactly are we going to do about tomorrow night?"

"We will all leave it in the ring. We are a couple outside that arena, but until the end of that mach tomorrow night, when we enter the arena...we will be rivals." The next few minutes was spent by Tal having to hug Katara to make her feel better and stop the water works from her eyes that he couldn't stop from staring into. When she had finally calmed down enough, he had to catch the last ferry for the mainland so they kissed each other goodnight and went their separate ways.

While almost everyone in the city was asleep, or unable to do so because of the anticipation of the upcoming finals match, in an old supposedly abandoned warehouse near Republic City's port district, there was a slew of activity...Equalist activity. The cops were never walking around the port, and even if they did, they would never find them. The only way in or out that did not involve wading through waist deep sewage water in the sewers to make it out to the bay was the single freight elevator in this one factory.

By one person using a key to access the _emergency_ function of that one elevator made the thing lower whoever was in it at the time dozens of meters underground and into a vast complex of rooms and hallways. And all of this was being used by well over a hundred or more Equalist agents. One of the these many rooms just so happened to be the personal office of the most wanted man on the planet, The Doctor.

Him and his dozen head agents were seated at a large conference table. The dozen agents seated with the man were wearing their trademark Equalist outfits but the masks were removed so that he could look right into each of their eyes. "Ladies and gentlemen, present your reports."

One of the men seated farthest from him at his spot at the head of the table rose up and saluted him. "Colonel Doctor, our agents at our Equality Prison Camp are reporting that the remaining prisoners from Tree Line are trying more and more escape from the camp. We have already discovered 3 more attempts just since last week. I'm requesting permission to make examples of those who attempt to escape."

"Permission denied commander," The Doctor answered. "We will need to attack more settlements to acquire more slaves and kill off any benders there, but we will have to wait until after we are successful tomorrow night." The commander saluted and returned to his seat.

Another commander stood and repeated the cycle of saluting, reporting their areas of influence and saluting after being acknowledged. One reported on the exceeding levels of production on the weapons being manufactured downstairs in a secret factory. Another reported on the progress of the newest batch sleeper agents made from the few selected survivors of Tree Line. One reported on the funds being gained by the dozen secret companies in Republic City's stock exchange. One reported on activities of Mako's police, while another reported on the movements of Avatar Tal and his two sisters.

The reports kept coming and The Doctor simply sat there and replied when he needed to and praised progress in other areas. He was pleased to hear that Fire Lord Iroh II was visiting the city to watch the match. If they could not only complete their primary objectives of getting to the Avatars, taking out the Fire Lord would also be a wonderful accomplishment. The Doctor flashed a quick smile at that idea. He would finally have revenge on that fool Iroh and his little friend Avatar Korra. The years of hiding and planning will finally be all worth it.

With the reports in and complete, it was him to address his fellow Equalists. "As you all have now heard, the Fire Lord will be there in the Arena tomorrow night. Or spies in the police department report that he will be in the same viewing suite as Avatar Korra and Chief Mako. They will be easy targets if we can neutralize the security and Avatar Tal. Our main objective will be to _capture _and not kill Tal and the Avatar's daughter."

"With those two in our custody we will be able to influence the other Avatar and her husband. If we can capture any of them alive, do it. However, I'm ordering that if the Fire Lord can be taken prisoner, take him to me. I am also ordering that no one is to kill anyone else but those fools who listen to that old street rat and his brother." He continued to address them. Then he gave a toast to their goal and dismissed them to get some rest before their attack would start.

He exited the room and retired to his personal apartment that was given to him by numerous unnamed donors to the Equalist cause. He changed into his sleeping robes and took a seat behind a desk he had in the main room. Sprawled all over the desk was photos of his many targets. Mostly Korra and Mako but also Tal and Katara, Asami Sato and her metalbender husband.

However one picture he knew was very special now that news of the Fire Lord being in the city had been acquired. It was an old and very outdated photo from over two decades ago. In it was a much younger Iroh when he was still the Commander of the United Republic of Nations military. And in this picture was him presenting an medal to a officer in the military for an advancement in the medical field. The Doctor knew exactly who that officer was.

It was him.

He was once on the side of fighting Equalist uprisings, or more like treating the injured and developing new weapons and other duties given to a Colonel Doctor in the military. He was given the medal for discovering a way to identify the bending ability and element of a newborns. It was a combination of a simple blood test and a copy of the infant's family tree going back at least five generations. With his formulas and theories, he was able to determine if a child would be a Bender or not with almost a 90% accuracy. He was awarded for his work, promoted to a higher office than his lowly medical station in the South Pole and given a large paycheck as well.

However, it soon all came crashing down. Iroh, began to her reports of this one man's ability to bloodbend from some of the man's former patients, and went to put a stop to this. On The Doctor's service record, he was listed as a nonbender, but in reality, he had lied about his background and then discovered to be one of the most feared types of benders in the world...a bloodbender. He never used it in public, maybe a few times in secret to secure a raving patient, but some one used his own research to trace his family line all the way back to a brother of the fearsome Republic City gangster, Yakone.

Yakone was a bloodbender, his two sons Tarrlok and Noatak were bloodbenders. The Doctor had gotten the same gene as his uncles, one who had used bloodbending to try and stop Avatar Korra when she was only 17. Noatak, better known as Amon, used it to stop a person from being able to bend, a trick that he too used to subdue a few of his rivals in the military.

But somehow the word got out about his bending powers and the Avatar, having suffered at the hands of his uncles, knew that he needed to he stopped at all costs. She was even more determined to do this, she had just finally recovered from giving birth to her first born son. After nearing being captured, he was able blood bender her enough to get Mako to stop her from furthering the chase. He escaped and made his way back to his hometown up in the far Northern Earth Kingdom. He had his appearance changed, just like his grand uncle Yakone had done.

After this, he slowly began to recruit those who had Equalist ideals and began to reconstruct the Equalists. Over the span of a decade, he used his disguise as a doctor to slowly make all the children born in his home town unable to bend.

He was creating a two where he was the only bender. A town where he would rule all and instill the idea of his uncle Noatak's idea of a world without benders. He never let out the secret of his family or his past. He told them Amon was a traitor to their cause and that he would lead them into a future where benders could not use their powers to gain control of those who couldn't bend the elements.

A future without benders...period.

* * *

**Well, there it is, the orgin of "The Doctor". I have not given him a name yet and I'm willing to take suggestions, PM me and if I use it, I will credit you with the name of our standard evil bloodbender bad guy that happeds to be in all these stories in the Avatar universe.**

**Otherwise, thankyou to all who read this, even when it has been over a week since my last update. I hope that this now hooks in those on the fence who might or might not fav/follow/reveiw this story. **

**Please...for the love of the spirts...leave me reviews, or fav this story or add yourself to the follower list. **


	34. You Fight Like Equalists

**Here's another chapter uploaded for you all to enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 34: You Fight Like Equalists

Tal was sleeping soundly in his large bed in the apartment well until around noon when he was abruptly awoken by his sisters jumping onto his bed and hopping around like it was the morning of the winter festival. He was having a very pleasant dream involving him and Katara all alone on some unnamed beach, and those two took him away from it. He got out of bed and realized what time it was. He had been asleep for well over twelve hours now.

A quick shower later and changed into his now trademark everyday clothes, he walked into the kitchen for whatever he could find to made a meal of. He was happy to see that the girls had finally decided to cook for once in their lives. They had made pancakes, a meal that he normally had to prepare for them. Tay had even made tea, she never would have done that. Tea making was Tai's normally specialty. Tal assumed that Ru had been teaching Tay how to make tea the right way, rather than spend all the time he got with her making out with her at whatever chance he got.

After that surprise meal, the three of them went again over strategy for the evening's match. They were going to go back to an old plan of theirs. He took on the guys and would give them no quarter in the ring. The twins went after Katara at the same time. It worked well enough to tie the Ferrets in the preseason, and it worked even better in the match against them a month later. However, the second time they went against the Fire Ferrets, it was a full moon night and Katara managed to take out the twins easily in the third round just as Ru and Hiroshi managed to send a wall of stone and fire at Tal and pushed him well over the ledge.

A surprise came for them in the form of Asami arriving at their front door around 3 in the afternoon with a few _gifts_ for them, new uniforms. They were newer versions of their now aged ones they had been using all season. Asami informed them that it was a treat for being such a good team and representing Future Industries so well, and that she had also given the Fire Ferrets new jerseys too. She also told them that she had managed to find a suitable act for the prematch entertainment took place during these championship matches. Aang's now fiancé Jazzi, had been working on with the Republic City Theater to perform a traditional native northern Earth Kingdom group dance. A dance the three teens had seen many time performed up in Tree Line during festivals. The Ferrets would as usual have the traditional having one of Hiroshi's pet fire ferrets perform a bunch of cute little parlor tricks for the crowd.

By late afternoon and now with new uniforms in their packs, they walked to the arena. True to his talk with Katara the night before, she was not her usual spot at the entrance to girl's locker room. But for some reason, Ru was standing outside the boy's one. Tay gave him a quick kiss before she and Tai went to go change, but Ru stopped Tal before the two boys went inside.

"This may not be the best time to ask you this Tal but I would like to ask for something very important from you." Ru spoke to him as they entered the locker room and found Hiroshi already halfway through changing into hi new uniform from his mom.

"If it is for me to go easy on you two tonight," Tal told them as he opened his pack and took out his inform and began to undress."You two are greatly mistaken."

"It's about Tay," Ru told him. "Because your parents are dead, I need to go to you for this because you are the eldest, and only male left in the family."

When he heard those words, Tal froze halfway through taking off his boots. Was Ru about to ask Tal for the one thing he feared he would have to do for his sisters. "Ru are you sure you want to ask me what I think you are about to ask me right before we go out there and I go to town on you?"

"Well it would prove my bravery...or stupidity" Ru said as he began to change. "I'm 19 years old and I really love Tay a lot. With Katara's brother getting married in the spring, and you and Katara most likely getting engaged at her birthday next week, I feel like it would be the right time to ask for Tay's hand in marriage." He was meet with silence from Tal.

"You do know that you can't get engaged to her for months still. The twins are still months away from turning 17. Couldn't you have asked me this after tonight?" He sternly told Ru as stopped lacing the belt of his pants. He turned to Hiroshi, "Let me guess...you were about to do the same to get Tai from me too?" The Sato boy just flashed a copy of his dad's innocent smile. Yep, he was going to do it too.

Tal had really no choice, if he didn't the guys would probably still go and propose to his sisters. He had to shut his eyes could hear the metal of the surrounding lockers begin to wrap slightly as he involuntarily metalbend them. "Fine, but let's make this interesting. If you two win tonight you can go propose to them in the spring when they turn 17." They nodded their heads in agreement. "And if I win, you two can't propose until after me and Katara are married." It was a few seconds before they nodded and he shook hands with them.

"Excellent," he told them as he tried his skull bandana around his face and put on his helmet. "Now prepare to get your rear ends handed to you two as me and your girlfriends beat the snot out of you two and my girlfriend." They exited the locker room and then went in opposite directions to their assigned ends of the arena to enter the ring.

Tai and Tay arrived later than he did at the point where the bridge extended to the ring. The two teams would not enter the ring until the prematch acts were over and the Ferret's act of a dozen little furry fire ferrets, all of Hiroshi's pets, scurried around the ring and did cute little tricks as the crowd either watched them applauded how adorable they were. The dance, the _Tree Line War Dance_, would take place next.

"Katara says good luck," Tai told him, "She also told us that if you and her do end up getting married, you won't have to worry about children because she is going to neuter you tonight." They giggled a bit as their brother cringed at the thought of losing a rather valuable part of his autonomy.

"That's not funny," he scolded them, " But then...that's exactly what I'm going to do to your boyfriends." They looked at him with matching looks of annoyance. Then he decided to let them know about his little bet with the boys. "But I would like you to know that me and the boys made a bet. They win, you get betrothal necklaces for your birthdays from them." He watched as their faced exploded with happiness as they hugged each other and screamed like loud obnoxious teen girls. "But if we win, which we will, they will have to wait until my and Katara are married." That made their faces fall. "Over a year from now." That made their faces fall even farther. "No way on earth are my little sisters getting married before I do."

The Ferret's act soon finished and the lights went out for a short time as Jazzi's theater group entered the ring. The spot lights came on and everyone could see the actors dressed in the traditional attire of people from the far Northern Earth Kingdom, earth colored Water Tribe style clothing. The twenty or so of them were dressed like warriors and hunters with swords, bows and spears. Another dozen were similarly dressed but carried drums and horns.

The music began to play as the drummers drummed out a single repeated pattern of beats. Those with the weapons began to twirl around a pair of men who wore headdresses of feathers. The crowd was about to view a early version of probending fighting. This was where the very idea of probending came to mind. One man began to send the very discs of earth from the ring at the other who would block the attacks be bending the water from the grates in the floor where Tay and Katara would get their water in the match. Their movements were much slower than today's probenders, but it was for the crowd's entertainment. The rest of the dancers in the ring cheered in whoops and wails.

The crowd roared in approval as the music suddenly stopped and the two men rushed at each other and began to shadow dance to simulate fighting each other with punches and kicks. The band played a different version of the same song. Another minute of this and the dance ended with the earthbender faking him snapping the neck of the waterbender. This made the crowd go nuts. The dance group exited the ring as the crowd applauded and the arena's announcer entered the ring and the bridges connected the team stand-by platforms to the ring's platform.

The Ferret's and The Three entered the ring as the man introduced the teams. Tal and Katara went up to the announcer for the rules overview. Neither of them said anything as they only stared at each other as the announcer recited the standard speech for the rule. They shook hands and walked back towards their teammates.

They all faced each other. Tal say Katara do a motion with her fingers as if they were a pair of scissors, as she pointed at him, or more precisely towards his privates. He returned the gesture with a subtle motion of his hand and watched and knew she felt something brush by her thigh. He then pointed at Ru and Hiroshi and then mimicked him snapping their necks like how the one actor did only minutes before.

They signaled the head ref that they were ready to go and the buzzer soon sounded. What followed was a five second attack by The Three that resulted in Tal hurtling over a dozen earth discs in quick succession at the boys with only a flick of his wrist while Tai went for Katara's feet with fire blasts and Tay water whipped at Katara's face. The Fire Ferrets had been ambushed and knocked into the next zone.

Their trick wouldn't work again as Ru and Hiroshi were soon sending their own attacks at him. Tal could only continue to use his trademark disc shield move as Katara was soon showing the twins go how much farther her training in waterbending was from Tay's and Tal's. She was more than capable of holding back them. They ware soon having to stay close to Tal's shield for protection from Katara's very accurate and very powerful blasts of water, or her lightning quick water whips. Time expired for the round and the buzzer sounded for the end of the round.

Round one was going to be decided by a tiebreaker, each team still had an even number of teams in the ring. The Ferrets won the following coin toss and decided to use fire as the element. In playoff tiebreakers, each team had to use the same element as the other team. It would be Ru verse Tai. They entered the tiny tiebreaker circle and the platform rose into the air a few feet.

The buzzer sounded for the start and Ru, thinking Tay would try for a quick fire blast, was suddenly rushed by her who then punched him in all the needed spots with great speed and made him collapse to the surface of the ring unable to bend, let alone move. He however won the tiebreaker because Tay had tried to avoid being hit by his falling body, she tried to get out of the way so quickly that she fell over the side and out of the ring onto the floor below. Round one went to the Fire Ferrets.

The crowd spilt themselves into those who cheered, booed, or gasped at the result. Katara rushed over to see Ru still unable to move after being chi-blocked. She should have seen this coming she told herself, and she knew that it was a fully legal move to do in tiebreakers. Tal and Tay rushed over to Tai who was squealing in pain as she laid there on the ground, grasping her side. Seconds later healers were arriving and determined that Ru would be unable to move for at least another hour, he was effectively out of the match. Tay had suffered worse by her fall and had cracked a rib, or had greatly bruised it, she was in two much pain to continue on so she too was out for the remained of the match. Each team now had to play without their firebenders.

They all returned to their respected starting positions and the second round went on just like the first. The Tree Line Three got the upper hand early by sending Hiroshi and Katara into zone 2 with a sudden ambush attack but then the Ferrets switched strategy, Katara went from going after Tay to suddenly go after Tal. Tal was soon being repeatedly hit with water whips while Tay was trying to avoid Hiroshi's attacks. Tal barely managed to stay in zone 1 and Tay had to go the rest of the round moving all around the zone to avoid being hit. Round two would have to also be decided with a tiebreaker.

The Three won the coin toss and Tal chose to have it be him verse Hiroshi. They were soon in the air and about to start. The buzzer sounded and Hiroshi knew what was about to happen, he was going to be chi-blocked. He tried to avoid Tal but the slightly smaller and more quick and agile Avatar had soon punched him in all the rights spots to force the Sato boy to go momentary still. He wasn't about to fall over like Ru had but Tal grabbed him by the collar of his jersey and head butted him. Hiroshi's head was well protected by his helmet but the force of Tal's hit caused the glass to crack and he was knocked unconscious. Tal then simply pushed the poor guy over the ledge of the ring and he fell hard but still intact and not injured. The second round went to the Tree Line Three.

The healers came out once again and had to carry Hiroshi out but not before the head ref flashed the red fan and pointed at Tal. He had been ejected from the match. "Avatar Tal is ejected for un-sportsmenlike conduct!" The refs voice sounded over the arena's audio system. "Round three will therefore be played with solely each team's waterbenders!" The crowd reacted in various ways as Tal had no other choice but to leave the ring and return to the locker room. There was no way for him to be able to see the round. He was already through the door and had opened his locker before he could hear the faint echo of the buzzer sounding the start of the third round.

His gut began to hurt, his little act of arrogance had him ejected from the match and now it would be only Tay going against a well more powerful waterbender. Tal knew that he had cost the Tree Line Three the match and the championship, Tay who was still a very good waterbender would still be no match against a very angry Katara. And he knew that Katara was a bit happy this happened cause it was her match to win now and the odds to win it were very much in her favor.

Back in the ring Tay's heart was going so fast she just wanted to faint. It was all up to her now. Tai was in the infirmary with Ru and Hiroshi, and Tal was sent to the showers. She was now up against just Katara and she knew that her brother's girlfriend, a good friend of her outside of probending, was going to beat the stuffing out of her soon. Tay's only advantage she could think of was that she was able to rest for a few seconds every now and then behind Tal's shield of discs. Katara was exposed all the time and she was breathing hard. After her display of superior waterbending, the Avatar's daughter was sure to be on her last legs of energy. Tay was still feeling fresh and ready. She knew that she stood a chance.

The three refs were debating something after ejecting Tal and while the medics took Hiroshi out of the ring. They stopped and the head ref gestured for Tay and Katara to come over to him. "I don't know if you two know this, but it is in the rule book that if a round is to begin with only one remaining bender on each team, the two benders can only use the first zone of their side but are free to enter their opponent's zone as well."

"It's like tiebreakers but with a larger area to play in. The same rules apply as with tiebreakers." He looked over at Tay "You are allowed to use chi blocking if you wish to like your brother and sister. Just don't get to carried away or you may be ejected like your brother." Katara's eyes went wide with this news. She was hoping to keep far away from Tay who she knew would try to get close and use chi blocking. "Try not to stall, but there is now no time limit for this round."

The girls agreed to the change in the game and went to prepare for the last round as the head ref announced the changes to the crowd who cheered or booed at the news. Katara was now really worried. Her teammates were in the infirmary, one probably still unconscious, and it would still be a good hour until the two of them got them bending chi back in sync. She was all alone in the now much small ring and she was going against a friend who could do to her what her sibling had done to Ru and Hiroshi. And to cap it all off, she was tired and was going to have to do this round on the last legs of her endurance.

She had went all bezerk last round because she had thought they could have won the match then. Katara's only chance to get a win now was to get to Tay right after the buzzer sounded and take her out quickly before she either became too tired to bend or Tay got too close and chi blocked her into submission. Katara looked right into Tay's eyes and saw that her friend knew what was going to happen.

Then the buzzer sounded...the last round began.

* * *

**Ha Ha! I left you a cliff hanger! I'm already half done with the next chapter but this one was already long enough to be its own chapter.**

**Otherwise, thankyou to those who continue to read this and fav it or follow it or me, I love getting emails when I'm at work at night telling me more and more people are faving it or following it or me. It really inspire me to keep writing although I got a dozen history papers to write. And now tht it's the holidays, I'm working more now than ever because I'm in the shipping industry, we hate this time of year.**

**Also I'm still begging you all to leave reviews for this because I really would like to see some to see what everyone thinks of all this.**

**If anyone who is reading this and works for the Avatar series...I'm more than willing to come and work for you for even a cruddy pay level. **


	35. A Night of Surprises

**Sorryfor the delay yet again , but now that winter break is soon at hand, more chapters will soon be written.**

* * *

Chapter 35: A Night of Surprises

In the locker room, Tal was still fuming about what he did. He was mad that the two boys he considered his best friends decided to ask him if they could marry his sisters right before the match of their lives. Ru should have considered himself lucky. If Tal could have gone against him, he would have chocked the firebender out for asking him it. Poor Hiroshi might not have been the one asking, but he was in with Ru's idea, Tal thought the earthbender needed to have a head check before asking to marry a relative of an Avatar. The Sato boy also got it because Tai had been hurt although not by her fault.

He was fully dressed when he realized he didn't yet hear the buzzer to signal the end of match when Katara took out Tay easily. He had heard the crowd cheer a few times. He exited the locker room and went back to the stand-by room only to see that the match was still going on. He was also surprised to find that the healers were using it as an aid station instead of taking the injured back to the infirmary. He found Ru lying in a chair facing the ring and watching. He was beginning to move a bit but his firebending would still take a bit longer to return to him. He saw that Hiroshi was now awake but still unable to move at all.

Tal walked over to a healer in a corner who was treating Tai's injured side. His sister had her shirt pulled up a bit to reveal a large purple bruise on her side and the healer was waterbending ice water on it to help speed up the healing process. It was the same type of treatment he had been taught by Korra and had seen thousands of time before.

"Can you believe this Tal!" Tai tried to yelled over the noise of the crowd as she winced a bit from the effort need to do so. "Our sister is singlehandedly taking on your girlfriend."

"I thought the match was over. What happened?" He scratched his head in confusion before leaning over at the railing to see the ring better.

"After you got ejected, the refs announced that the rules said in a situation like this where only one player on each team is left before the final round. The playing field is reduced in size but there is now no time limit. And to cap it all off...chi blocking is allowed now." Ru told him, without even a hint of anger in his voice. He seemed to be over the whole fact of being chi blocked by a smaller 16 year old girl. "Katara tried to get to Tai early but as you can now see, Tay is easily evading Katara's attack and sending back her own ones now."

He went over to the railing overlooking the ring and watched as Tay was now sending bigger and faster water whips at Katara's face while she could only now send back whips of much smaller size which barely reached Tay. He saw Tay pass the line and watched as she wasn't penalized for doing such, another rule change.

Back down in the ring Katara was about to lose it. Tay had been just too quick and now had entered her zone. She tried to strengthen her attacks but Tay was now simply blocking them. She watched as Tay slowly walked towards her, she knew what would happen soon if the girl raised by Equalists got too close. Katara stopped her attacks to quickly summon a large ball of water to throw at Tay.

This was when Tay attacked. She rushed at Katara who had to stop her waterbending to try and defend herself. The large ball of water she had been trying to make fell onto them, soaking them to the bone. The water was cold but Tay did not care, she was after Katara and had tackled her friend and sent the two of them skidding to the edge of Katara's zone one.

Katara summoned the last of her strength to throw Tay off of her and stand up only to have Tay chi block her in the arms and only the arms. Katara felt her arms go suddenly numb and limp. She was standing only a foot or two from the edge of zone one and watched as Tay stood away at a distance and waterbended a jet of water at Katara's stunned face and send her friend well out of her zone and out of the match.

The buzzer rang out and the crowd roared louder than ever. The sister of one Avatar had beaten the daughter of another Avatar. Tay threw her hands into the air with joy and involuntarily waterbended all the water in the grates that lined ring, making a cloud of mist as it crashed down after being sent a dozen meters into the air. Katara struggled to roll to her side and get up to her knees without the use of her still numb arms. The only waterbending Katara could do now was tearbending...which she began to do greatly as she realized she had lost in the finals...again.

The bridges extended to the ring and Tal an Tai rushed over to Tay. They hugged each other as they cheered their victory...or more specifically...Tay's victory. As soon as Tal could give Tay a big hug as he lifted her well off the floor and put her back down, he went to Katara and helped her up to her feet. He saw that she was crying and he hugged and told her that he was sorry that it had to come down to this.

She must have not hated him for the loss, she didn't try to shove him away, but that was probably because she couldn't move her arms. He then noticed that the front of his clothes were now soaking wet from hugging his drenched sister and drenched girlfriend. But right now he didn't care, his sister had won the match and he was busy trying to comfort Katara. "I'm alright Tal," She told him as he helped her take her helmet off. "I just wished that I could use my arms right now."

"Considering that Tay only did your arms," he calculated, "you should regain use of your arms in about another minute or so but the bending will be another ten or so after that." He walked along side her as they followed Tay and Tai back to the stand -by room where the others were still. By the time they had reached the room, Katara could now move her arms.

Tal went right back to Tai to check on his sister's treatment. He found that she was already back on her feet and was kissing Hiroshi who was still stuck in a chair until the chi blocking wore off. He found his now champion probender sister Tay making out with Ru who was now able to move but whose firebending was still a while from returning to him. Seeing that his presence wouldn't be well appreciated by his sisters at the moment, Tal went back to Katara to see how she was coping with the loss. She used her renewed use of her arms to embrace him from behind and kiss his cheek. "You might have won this year Tal, but the Fire Ferrets are going to the next year's champs for sure now!"

She was going to kiss him again when all the lights in the arena went out at once.

Everyone in the arena began to panic as dozens of series of electric arc dazzled in the darkness. Many of Mako's extra cops were being knocked out by either be shocked by electric gloves or by being chocked out by Equalist agents who had been hiding amongst the crowd. The main spotlights turned back on to show a dozen or more agents repelling from the arena's roof onto the ring. When they reached the ring, they advanced in the direction of either the suite where Korra was with the Satos and the Fire Lord or right at him, his sister and the Fire Ferrets.

Tal felt like kicking himself for letting him not remember that the Equalists were planning to attack. "I'm going to take care of these clowns," he yelled to them as he began to move towards the advancing agents now crossing the bridge from the ring. "You all need to stop those going after the others." He pointed towards the suite where the others were. They all rushed out the door as the healers who had been in the room with them helped carry the still immobile Hiroshi out towards safety.

Tal, having been ejected from the match, still had a whole lot of energy to use for bending. He had half a dozen opponents coming at him. They had no electric gloves or the new guns, they had to be crazy to take on him without any weapons. Tal held out his hand and was about to firebend to push back his oncoming attackers.

Before he even knew it, he was flying backwards through the air and crashed into the far wall of the room he was in.

He was slow to get up, but he received some unwanted help, when he suddenly was now floating in the air as he felt his entire body cramped up in immense pain. He was being bloodbent and he knew that he was in trouble. We could only watch as one of the Equalists near him step forward with one of their hands posed in the trademark bloodbending form. "Didn't expect this little surprise did you Avatar?" The masked Equalist said as he threw Tal into another wall. "Your little friends are going to be in a whole heap of trouble if they get in our way." The voice was male, the other agents all had the body shape of men but one did appear to be a woman.

Tal was again hoisted into the air by bloodbending and was barely able to breathe let alone speak. "You're a bloodbender?" He gasped for more air. "But the Equalists hate all benders." He had to pause for more air and to try and break the grip of the bloodbending. "How can you side with people who want all benders dead?" The only real way it seemed to tell them apart was that two of them had a blue sash tied around their waists. One of them wearing a sash was the bloodbender so Tal assumed the other might be another as well.

He fell to the floor with a hard thud as the man released his grip. He got up to his feet and was surprised that he was not bloodbent again. The other Equalists who accompanied the bloodbender had moved into positions that surrounded Tal on all sides. "Take care of our little guest." The bloodbender ordered as he left the room back onto the bridge to the ring. "I'm going to take care of our primary objective, with the other commanders and the Doctor. But be gentle, the boss wants him taken alive." He walked over to the other agent with a sash, "You better stay in case he tries to make a run for it."

The agent answered him with a female voice, "My pleasure." When Tal heard this, his eyes went from his many closing in attackers, over to the one person leave them behind to take on Tal. That bloodbender was a subordinate to The Doctor. That must mean that The Doctor either had a way to not be affected by bloodbending...or maybe he was a bloodbender too. It was just like back when that nut Amon was running the Equalists, the whole operation to rid the world of bending was being lead by bloodbenders.

The one other bloodbender walked up to Tal who was still a bit out of breath from being bloodbent. "Well Avatar, we can do this either the easy way in which you simply surrender and come with us peacefully." She then put his arm around the back of her belt and pulled out a large knife, a motion the others soon did as well. "Or do was need to do this the hard way. Don't try to metalbend, it's useless, these knifes are made of pure metal."

Tal held out his arms, his hatchet was visible on his belt but he would be overrun if he tried to make a move for it. Metalbending would be useless if the agent wasn't lying about the knives. "Well since we're going to do it that way, " he told them. He had to go after this possible bloodbender first. The others would be easier to beat after Tal was able to fight without the possibility of being bloodbent again. "And the fact that you are threatening not only me, but my sisters, my friends, my teacher, and...my girlfriend. You should be the ones who should be considering surrendering."

"And why should be you that you little punk?" The agent said as he began to pose his hand in the form ready to bend Tal's blood.

"Because when you threatened the lives of those people and the hundreds of others here in this arena and the rest of Republic City and the world." His blades from under his wrists shot out of their concealed spots. "You then given me the permission of the spirit world to go all _glowy eyed _on you..." He then with incredible speed and force pounced forward and sent the blades into the chest of the agent, "...and kill you!"

He lunged at the female agent stabbed her in the neck and chest with his blades. Before he could feel her body begin to fall to the ground, he had already pulled out his blades and picked his next target. This one was a much taller agent who Tal effortlessly dispatched with a single slash across the agent's neck. The agent's arms flew to his neck as he gurgled in agony at his rapidly approaching death.

The last three were even easier for Tal to kill. The first was stabbed in both eyes before being stabbed again in the chest. The next had spun around to watch his fellow agents who had been killed first fall to the ground dead, he now had his back turned to the Avatar. He was grabbed by Tal who performed the very real neck snapping move that was portrayed before the match. The last agent could only stand still in shock as he watched his fellow agents die in only mere seconds of one another. He thought the Avatar wasn't supposed to kill. Now he was watching the Avatar violently kill a very close fellow agent with a sickening snap of his neck. The last thing he would see, was the teenaged Tal pouncing into the air like a wild predator, and crashing down onto him with two blades sticking into his chest.

Over on the other side of the arena, Korra finally determines why she didn't feel so comfortable for the last few days. She had felt so uneasy about a possible attack and now it was happening. She had been sitting in the Sato family's suite next to Mako, each of them had either of their 5 year old twin sons sitting in their laps so that they too could watch. One minute she was watching her daughter waterbending like no other, and then she had lost to Tay.

She and everyone else in the suite were about to leave to go find the teens to celebrate the end of the probending season and to celebrate the Tree Line Three's win. She was just about to open the door when the lights went out and she heard people screaming. When the lights turned back on, there Equalists advancing towards her and her family and friends. Korra yelled for Asami to take the children and get to the ferry. Her friend might have been a very good fighter back in the day but now she would be a sitting turtle-duck without bending powers.

The teens were on the complete opposite side of the arena and had their own Equalists after them. They would have to go on their own, Korra had her own problems. She would have to fight these agents with Mako, Bolin, and Iroh by her side. They were about to unleash their first attacks when they were suddenly screaming in agonizing pain as they were lifted into the air from being bloodbent.

Korra wasn't just screaming from the pain of the bloodbending, she was also having flashbacks to when she had to face Amon over 20 years before. It was her greatest fear, a fear she never told anyone about other than Mako. They could only hang there in the air as the Equalists closed in. The dozen or so agents now entering their room took out ropes and handcuffs made of pure medal.

She was just about to be handcuffed when one of the agents spoke, "Commander, look!" The one who was bloodbending her, who she now knew was one of the more higher ranking Equalists, turned his head to over back out on the arena's ring. The bloodbender commander continued to hold his grip on his prisoners but Korra could see why the other agent spoke out. Tal was jogging towards them, and he looked mad...very mad.

Korra couldn't believe it as she saw that Tal's eyes had began to glow, one glowed white while the other glowed red. Tal had entered the Avatar State not only for the first time in the real world, but also for the first time under his complete control.

* * *

**Well, now things are really going to heat up...literally!**

**Like I always do at the end of every chapter, I would like to thank all of those who are reading this story many days after updates. And I would like to ask that if you like this story or just have some creative critiques, please leave reviews or pm me. And please fav or follow me and or this story. This is the reason why I still update this thing after all.**


	36. The BAMF State

**Well, after a long few weeks, I finally got a good action chapter to make the battle in LOK season 1 look like a walk in the park. I you know what the abbreviation BAMF means, you will like this chapter. **

**Sorry for the long wait but since I'm on winter break, I would like to get in some well needed COD before all the Xmas noobs make the game a POS. It's already bad enough I need to wait for all my friends on live to get all online at once to get a good team.**

* * *

Chapter 36: The "BAMF" State

Throughout all time, each Avatar had one vital weakness that they needed to beat for them to become a fully realized Avatar. More recent examples of these weaknesses where: Kuruk's arrogance, Kyoshi's pride, Roku's trust, Aang's fear, and Korra's spirituality. The spirits punished each Avatar in a way to make them beat their weaknesses or for the next Avatar to earn from their mistakes. Kuruk's wife was killed by a spirit to bring Kuruk's arrogance back down to Earth. Kyoshi's Dai Li ended up being a force of evil rather than a way to preserve Earth Kingdom values. Ruko was killed by his best friend, Fire Lord Sozin. Aang could never come to grips from his fear and did not stop the evil bloodbender Yakone, causing Korra trouble years later. And Korra was unable to airbend at all until she learned to be more spiritual.

Tal, being an Avatar himself, was to also have such a weakness. Tal's weakness was his issue with his identity. He was not only an Avatar, but also from a certain point of view and Equalist. His two souls would tear him from the inside out if he could not stop this. The good soul wanted him to be an Equalist, to be a sense of justice and equality to all, benders and nonbenders. The other soul, the evil soul, had a thirst for revenge, a thirst that couldn't help but be quench by killing Tal's enemies like they were only wild mindless animals.

Unfortunately for the over three dozen Equalist agents repelling down onto the ring to stop Tal from preventing the capture of the Fire Lord and Avatar Korra, Tal's thirst for revenge and blood was a bit on the high end at the moment. Korra could only watch in both suspense and horror as her student and the boyfriend of her daughter tore at his closest attackers without stopping his slow but sure progress to where she and the others were. She watched as he sliced, stabbed, punched, kicked, firebended, and earthbended his way through agents like they were nothing.

It was even more cruel some than when she had to watch him take his firebending exam. Agents just kept going at him, not even feeling any fear as they watched their comrades get violently killed in front of their eyes. Korra could hear more scream from above her as she finally noticed that many civilians had not escaped the arena, but instead were glued to their seats in astonishment as they watched Tal keep up his attacks. To man, he was just a blur as he now stopped his advance towards Korra and the others as he now turned his full attention to the now dozens of Equalists repelling from the roof or stands.

Way up high on the roof, near the arena's massive spotlights for the ring, where no one else could see, was The Doctor. He might be a bloodbender and his powers would prove very useful in securing a victory for the Equalist cause, but he had a feeling that the teen would do something like this. The only possible way to stop Tal he thought would be with the other bloodbenders he had brought along with him. Now, the only two surviving bloodbenders other than him were still too busy trying to secure the Fire Lord and Avatar Korra and her family. Every other Equalist here was a nonbender, ones who wanted to kill benders.

The brainwasher from the old White Lotus compound back down at the South Pole was the only way he could make those dozens of agents want to go after Tal, even if their comrades in arms were being slaughtered be him right before their very eyes. It was also the only way to convince them to follow a group of commanders who were bloodbenders, the most despised benders of all history. He looked through a pair of binoculars to watch as the teen Avatar cleanly decapitated a Equalist agent that The Doctor had no clue as to their very name.

The boy had progressed farther in his trained than was assumed. He had warned his agents that he had been raised by Equalists and trained in many forms of nonbending combat. He would have been able to turn the tide of the battle back into the favor of the Equalists, if it wasn't for the fact that he was supposed to be meeting the main financier for the Equalists. So instead of letting his bloodbending help, he was stuck up there waiting for his benefactor to make themselves.

Whoever had been the person behind all the Yuans pouring into the Equalists' coffers, they had to be very rich and very powerful. They were even the one to suggest using the brainwashing contraption the White Lotus planned to use on the Avatar if they could even capture her. This one person was the one who asked that if exchange for The Doctor keeping Fire Lord Iroh and Avatar Korra hostages, he would in turn capture Tal alive and bring him to his benefactor. One very clear order was given by this mysterious person...Tal was to be kept alive at all costs.

The Doctor over the roar of the terrified crowd could hear footsteps approaching him up there on the roof. He turned around on instinct and saw his visitor. It was just one person cloaked in a long robe with the hood covering his head and a bandana covering his face. "Colonel Doctor Xi Han, formerly of the United Republic of Nations military I presume," the masked figure asked him.

"Yes," The Doctor answered his visitor, "But how did you find out my name? If you are my main financier for the Equalist cause, you have never given me your name and never have asked for mine." He slowly approached the masked man. "Why do you give us such wealth if all you want in return is the teenage Avatar?" He pointed over down at the still ongoing massacre of his agents by Tal. The teen was now using his hatchet to cut down agents or simply cut their heads off.

Occasionally, he would metalbend a pistol that was suddenly aimed at him, only to have it fly out of the shooter's hand and into his. Tal's previous knowledge of these weapons proved to be useful as he would them fire it at the shooter and then just throw it at them like a club. "How can you simply ask me to be here when I could be down there saving my agents from being killed and we could capture you little payment."

"Because Doctor," the man answered sternly. "That boy is the key to my own plans." His voice was dark and sounded like he was trying to change it a bit to hide his true identity. "If you do indeed capture and kill Fire Lord Iroh and his little friends Avatar Korra and her excuse for a Chief of Police husband, Mako; you will be saving me a lot of time in trying to do it for my own plan. I need Tal captured alive because you are not the only one in this world with a brain washing machine."

That last comment left The Doctor stunned. He knew that there was only two such machines in the world, his back down in the Equalists' underground base, and the one that was in the high security vault at the Ba Sing Se museum. Only one man in that walled city had access to that machine. "It can't be! How can you be siding with us?!" He threw his hands out, seconds away from bloodbending this man. But suddenly, his body was thrown back into a wall with a large stone and then incased in a cone of rock that prevented his arms from moving.

His bloodbending was now useless. All the man could do was watch as several figures stepped out from the shadows. They were dressed in the trademark attire of Ba Sing Se's state police force...The Dai Li. The masked man walked slowly up to the defenseless Bloodbender, taking out a syringe of clear liquid. "You should consider yourself lucky," he told him as he stuck the needle into the man's neck. All The Doctor could hear after that was, "My plan still allows for you to stay alive." And then he blacked out. He had been injected with a quick acting knock out drug.

When his victim had fully succumbed to the drug, the Dai Li agents removed the rock that had been trapping his body. They let his body fall hard to the ground. Their masked leader inspected the body to make sure it was safe to move. "The Equalists' plans have failed." He told them as they began to dress their victim up in a extra set of Dai Li robes. Another agent took out a stretcher that was hidden in a nearby corner. "We will not be able to capture the Avatar if he is in the Avatar State. We will need the advantage of surprise to get to him. Now...let's get back to our places before anyone become suspicious." They all nodded in silence and began to make their way downstairs.

As all this happened, the Bloodbender holding Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Iroh hostage ordered them to tied to their seats. He held them down with bloodbending as the other agents with him did all the work. He looked back out at into the ring to watch as his other subordinate agents were being slaughtered without mercy by Tal. Other agents had already gone to look for the Sato woman and the families' younger children. Another squad went to capture the teen probenders, and another went to secure the Avatar's eldest son Aang and his fiancé, Jazzy who had went to help the teenagers. He had to help them so he ordered all the other agents to stay and guard their captives while he assisted in capturing Tal.

As for Tal, he was beginning to like all the things he was capable of doing with his powers when he was in the Avatar State. The immense magnitude of power he now had was thrilling and felt like he was in charge of all things. Tings begin to make his mind wander a bit as he began to listen to all the screams of death and agony as he cut down agent after agent the Equalists sent at him. He appeared to have finally been dwindling their numbers down to a point that only a few pairs remained.

He had no soon as slashed the throat of the last agent, he exited the Avatar State. He was suddenly lifted into the air by his neck. He scratched at the nonexistent hand that was hanging him like an invisible noose. Then he lost control of his arms as he was bloodbent again. He gasped in pain as he was then smashed down onto the floor with a good amount of force. In other words, if Tal was going against a bloodbender...Tal was going to be a dead man.

Katara and the rest of the teens, having taken all this time slowing making their way around the arena without being caught. It also took them longer than expected because of the still dozens of people leaving the arena in a panic. Katara found her aunt Asami with her three brothers, her cousins and Jazzy all running from a team of Equalists trying to get them. Aang and Jazzy, being the only well trained benders in the group escaping from the suite, were having difficulty to slow down their advancing attackers. Aang in particular was in the rear, keeping himself between the other and the agents. Soon, he was just about to be ganged up by three agents when they suddenly stopped , turned tail and ran away. He had no clue as to why they had done this but then he heard Katara's voice behind him.

"Looks like Republic City's finest had to be rescued by his little sister." He turned around to see his sister and the others. She then began to make her way in the direction he had just come from. Her voice echoed down the hallway as she ran towards her parents' suite. "Come On! We need to help mom and dad!" Aang and the other then began to make their way back to their captured family members.

Katara, was soon right outside the door to the suite. She didn't see any Equalists, but she told the others to keep quiet as they finally rejoined her. She looked through the door's keyhole to see six agents inside but all looking out towards the ring. She looked at who was all with her and saw that there was seven trained benders including her. She, Tay, and Jazzy were waterbenders and had a supply of water from a bag that Jazzy had with her at the time. Aang, Ru, and Tai were firebenders with a limited supply of chi and energy to firebend but still enough for a good fight. the only odd one out was Hiroshi who was an earthbender had no apparent earth to bend. That was until she saw the nice large vase and stone base it was on that was right across the hallway from them.

Back in the suite, Korra was scared to tears. She was captured and was now watching as her successor Avatar being bloodbent. Korra, being the victim of bloodbending in the past, was scared of such a power that waterbenders could do with the proper training. Her waterbending master, Sifu Katara, the woman that her daughter was named after, had banned the practice for a reason. Bloodbending was pure evil when used for ill purposes. Even if she wasn't tied to a chair, she would still be unable to move as she would be too terrified. Only until a few years ago, she had once in a awhile would have a nightmare or two that had her being bloodbent again by Amon and losing her bending.

Korra was shaken from her trace of terror when she heard a knock at the door. The agents who had been watching their leader bloodbend Tal turned to look at the door. There was a loud boom as the door was thrown off its hinges as a large vase and its base was thrown into it. Dust and dirt was everywhere as Korra had to closed her eyes. She only opened them when she heard the agents get hit in their faces or chests by balls of fire or chunks of ice. Out of the dust came Aang who went to secure the downed agents with Ru and Hiroshi as Katara and Tal's sisters went and untied her and the others.

As soon as Korra had her arms freed, she put Katara in a big hug but it was short lived as the two of them heard the crowd still in the stands shout in shock as Tal was again slammed into the ground. He was lifted yet again into the air through bloodbending, but now he had control of his hands and could breathe, although his whole body ached in pain from the many times he was slammed to the ground. Katara was about to just go and run out to help, but she was stopped by her mother who grabbed her by the arm.

"We have to go help him mom!" Katara yelled at Korra who was now tearing up as she struggled to keep a hold of her daughter. "Tal is getting killed out there without us!"

"We can't!" Korra yelled at her. "That bloodbender is too strong." Her crying began to become more and more apparent. "And..." she struggle to speak. "I can't fight a bloodbender sweetie. They're just...too powerful. I can't fight them and I'm scared of them."

Tal was given a break from his pounding as the bloodbender, still unaware that he was now the only Equalist left in the arena, kept him suspended in the air as he walked closer to the teen Avatar. "You're lucky that I have orders to keep you alive..._Avatar_." He took out a pair of handcuffs with his free arm and the other kept his invisible grip on Tal's blood which was still in his body and not on the ground from his now busted nose and multiple cuts. "Any last words before you become a prisoner of the Equalist Cause."

Tal, summoning up the last few bits of strength he had left in him, struggled as he held out his arms as if he was asking to be handcuffed. He coughed up more blood as he barely managed to speak. "Three..." He said. "Spring...Loaded...Blades." When managed to finish the word blades, he metalbent two switches that were on his gauntlets. The two blades now coated in a thick layer of blood from all the agents he had killed shot out from their concealed spots and flew right and true through the air and slammed into the bloodbender with enough force to make him fall over and release Tal from his grip.

Tal fell again to the floor and yelled in pain as he rolled himself onto his stomach and began to slowing and very painfully crawl towards the now hemorrhaging bloodbender. He tried to catch his breath as he finally made it to the Equalist. He grabbed the man's Equalist mask and tore it off. Tal then turned the man's head so that he could look right into the now bulging eyes and see the blood being spewed from his mouth as he struggled to breathe. The blades had gone into the man's abdomen and had pierced a lung and most of his vital organs other than his heart. "I..am...the Avatar..." Tal told him. "...and you...will...be...dealt...with!" He then punched the man in the face before he too passed out. He could barely hear the cries from Katara as he drifted deeper into darkness.

* * *

**Hope it was a good action chapter for everyone cause the next is going to be a a kind of conclusion chapter to end the first "Book" of this series. I will still be posting chapters of the next "Books" still under this story so don't feel like this is the end of this one!**

**Also, I will still like to ask my readers for any comments, reviews, advice, or just a general hi (Especially if you live in the Milwaukee WI area!).**

**And to conclude this chapter, Thanks to all who continue to read this story and add it to their listof stories to follow or just fav it. I have this feeling that this story is the highest rated story that isn't about all the "relationship issues" that most stoies here have or just stories about sex. I keep it a kid friendly and just put it at M or T because of all the unadulterated violence that is in this. **


	37. The End of The Beginning

**Well, after a nice long time to write something that I hope to make all readers happy, I hope this will do it. I got school stating up again so updates might take a good long time to be written. I've hit some writer's block as to how to proceed with this. I'm going to need some time to plan out upcoming chapters.**

**This chapter is a bunch of fluff between our two main characters. I had to do this to make up for the mass of action in the last chapter. **

**I've been getting alot of hits every day since the last update, but no one new seems to be faving or following this story. And to cap that all off, I have not gotten a review in well over a month!**

* * *

Chapter 37: The End of The Beginning

Katara was tired. She was now finding herself spending more time in the room where Tal was being hospitalized in that in her own room. For what has now been over a week, she had been constantly at Tal's side as he laid in a bed at Republic City's main hospital. He was still in the coma had had fallen into after passing out back in the ring of the arena way back after the Equalist attack at the championship match.

When she and her mother Korra saw him take down the bloodbender, they ran to his side and saw all the damage that he had been subjected to. Multiple broken or sprained bones, broken nose, broken ribs, and he had lost a whole lot of blood. Now, he was being pumped transfused blood into him from the hospital's blood bank and undergoing multiple healing sessions from the many healers available there. He was even receiving some short unscheduled ones from Katara whenever she visited. He was barely breathing and had mask over his mouth to bring precious air to his lungs. An IV line flowed liquids into his veins through a needle in one of his arms. Katara was a bit worried about the IV, Tal had told her that he had a great dislike of needles. She thought that he might panic and rip it out of his arm if he suddenly came to and saw the needle in his arm.

Tal's condition, although being in a coma which no one knew if he would ever come out of, had been slowly getting upgraded from critical, to severe, to stable. His legs were in casts and his torso and chest were being held in a brace when he was not in a healing session. His head was in bandages soaked in healing balms to heal the many cuts to his face.

Katara now would just sit in the chair next to Tal's bed day and night. She only left to eat or go to the rest room. She had to be almost dragged back home by Jazzy who had to promise to let her come back after she slept for a few hours over at Tai's and Tay's on the couch. The apartment was now being guarded by cops to make sure the Equalists didn't try to attack again. Back at the hospital, Tal's room had two cops posted right outside the door. All Katara could do for Tal now was get enough sleep and be there for him when he woke up.

Her own birthday was tomorrow and Katara had forgotten all about it until Tay had brought it up at breakfast earlier in the day at breakfast. Korra, Mako, Asami, Bolin, and Aang had gone on some important trip only a day or two after the attack and she hadn't heard anything since. So that everyone could be near the hospital incase Tal woke up, all the kids had been staying at the old apartment near the arena.

The older teens and Jazzy had to babysit the twin boys, and keep the younger Sato children company and out of the Sato family's workshop. The women sleep in with Tai's or Tay's rooms. The twins, Sokka and Zuko slept in Tal's bed while the rest of the boys had to sleep on the couches or on the floor in sleeping bags. If they weren't there, they were all at the hospital visiting Tal while he was still in a coma.

Seeing from the clock on the wall that the news would soon be on, Katara turned on the radio that came with the room. She would be the only one listening to it, only her and Tal were in the room and Tal was sure as hell not going to be paying any attention to a radio broadcast if he was unconscious. She turned it on and tuned it to the main station. The room filled with the smooth jazz music that was popular for the day. Even a holiday song or two because the winter festival would be tomorrow. A little thing that Katara was proud of, she was a festival baby. At exactly 6 in the evening, the news broadcast began.

_"Good evening Republic City. This is Mina Chi with the evening news. We start this evening with news just finally being released from sources in the United Republic of Nations military. They are finally releasing to the public information about the attack by the radical Equalists at the Probending arena after the championship match last week."_ Katara wasn't really listening to this but now had her attention given to the radio.

_"As what has been reported during previous broadcasts, Avatar Tal was able to succeed in stopping the attack by singlehandedly killing what is now confirmed as 84 Equalist agents and sending another 23 to the hospital in serious condition. We can now report that many of these agents have been identified as being from the town of Wolfbat Falls. It is the only other town in region of the Far Northern Earth Kingdom other than the massacred town of Tree Line. As for Avatar Tal, reports are still listing him in a serious condition. However, rumors also have been circulating around the city that he has in fact, died of his wounds, but those are only rumors at this time."_

_"United Republic sources have also now finally reported that Wolfbat Falls is a haven for the Equalists and earlier this week, Avatar Korra and other members of the old "Team Avatar", have gone to the city and have captured many of the remaining leaders of the Equalists." _News as the where her parents were made Katara pick up the radio in anticipation for more news as to where they were and what they were doing.

_"However, we have to report that the top leader Xi Han, a former Colonel in the United Republic military's naval medical corps who became the man known to us as "The Doctor" was not captured and his location is still unknown."_ The woman then went on to report on other topics and Katara stopped paying attention to the radio but allowed it to remain on because the station would soon return to playing some music.

Katara only pained attention to one single sound in the room, Tal's shallow breathing. She pulled her chair over closer to the bed and held hand of the arm that didn't have an IV in it. An hour later, it was about time for dinner and she knew that she had to return to the apartment for dinner with the others. After that, they had planned to all come and visit him again for a little bit more before going back to the apartment to sleep. Katara, having to leave her love behind in such a weak state hurt her deeply. She gathered up the courage to place a quick little kiss on his one exposed cheek. This was the first time she had kissed him since he was brought there. She had dared not to do it anytime before because he look as if the slightest touch could kill him.

She got up from her chair, turned off the radio. Katara was opening the door and about to leave when she heard a moan from behind her. Turning around, she looked over at the bed to see Tal's head slowing rolling from side to side. The moan was from him. Tal had come out of his coma. She rushed over to him and found him clenching his eyes in pain but soon slowly opening them. She rushed back to the door to tell one of the guards to get a doctor. She then raced back to his bed and found him blinking his eyes as the light in the room was too bright for him.

Tal finally opened his eyes and Katara standing next to his bed. His head hurt, and the rest of his body ached like hell too. He heard Katara tell him something, but he couldn't understand it. A doctor came in and checked his pulse. She looked as if she was seeing a ghost. She removed the air mask carefully and Tal could finally hear what they were saying.

"Avatar Tal," the doctor told him as she tried to keep him from trying to get out of his bed. "Your body has been subject to immense bodily harm. You have been in a coma for over a week. You can't just get up and move about, you need to stay still and not try to do more harm to your body." She went to a table and brought him a glass of water which she helped him to slowing drink to wet his lips and throat. Katara could only stay back and wait as the doctor tended to her boyfriend.

The doctor turned to Katara. "He seems like he will be fine now. But he will need to take it easy for a while still. I will see if we can contact your parents and update them on his condition. In the mean while, you and the other who visit him may come by right now if you want to but I suggest that only a few visit at a time. He may still drift back to sleep although he has been in a coma but he shows no signs of a concussion so we don't feel as if he is in any more danger right now." The doctor then left the room and Katara was left again all alone with Tal.

She went over to Tal again and kneeled down to lean again the bed so that her face was only a foot away from his. "About time you woke up, sleepyhead," she told him playfully. "I was afraid that you might miss my birthday."

"I've been out that long." Tal's voice said with a bit of difficulty. His throat was still very dry. "What happened?"

"You went all glowy eyed on us and kicked Equalist butt." She told him as she stroked his exposed hair that poked through his head's bandages. "You single handedly took on over a hundred Equalists. You saved everyone there at the arena. You kept them busy while we saved my parents. You're being hailed a hero all over the place. Even the pro non-bender newspapers are saying you are a true hero to all people."

She kissed him on the lips lightly. "I forgive you for beating us, Tal. I'm not mad at you or your sisters." She then got up and gave him a very gentle hug and kissed him yet again. She was tearing up in her eyes. "I'm just so happy that you're alive." He was able to lift his arms enough to allow him to hug her too.

"Where's everyone?" he managed to asked her after another drink of water. His voice was still sounding week but he was beginning to feel the pain of not moving for so long begin to sink in and it hurt more than his throat. She asked him if he would let her get the others and he told her to do it while he hope the doctor, or at least a nurse, could help him off from his bed and over to the small bathroom across the room.

It was ninety minutes from when Katara left, to when she and the others returned. In that time, Tal had been able to get himself helped out of his bed and onto a wheelchair to wheel into the bathroom. He was done and back in bed with plenty of time to take a very quick nap before being woken with the young Zuko ad Sokka bashing open the door. The two young boys ran up to the bed and began to shower Tal with comments. "You were so cool out there!...You kicked Equalist butt!...Where did you learn those moves?...Can you teach us those moves?...".

The two loud boys were scooped up by Jazzy and put down on a chair and told to stay there and keep it down. Tal got hugs from his sisters and handshakes from Ru, Jazzy, and Hiroshi. They began to fill in Tal on what had all happened since the attack, with some side commentary from Sokka and Zuko. When it was late into the evening, they all said their goodbyes and were leaving when Tal pulled his sisters aside and whispered something into their ears.

The next day was not only Katara's birthday, but the winter's best celebrated festival as well. It was noon before they could get to the hospital, the city's street traffic was a grid lock because of parades and parties in the streets. Ferry traffic was slow as well. When they were finally able to make it to Tal's room, they found him having his leg casts being removed. A healer then waterbended water around his legs to heal up any last cuts and scrapes as well as get his legs back into shape. Within an hour, he was back on his feet and was cleared to leave the hospital, he had to have broken a record for healing.

They were all soon back at the apartment and sitting around the living room. Everyone but Tal and the two young boys helped to make dinner. When Tal saw that Katara was too busy keeping an eye on the soup she was making, he told her little brothers to quietly go into his room and retrieve his gift for her. The two boys returned just in time to give him the small box when everyone heard a knock at the front door. Zuko and Sokka went to see who it was and shouted with joy when they found out it was their parents.

Without any warning, Korra, Mako, Bolin, Asami, and Aang had returned to Republic City. With the announcement of their arrival, the elder Avatar's children wet to hug their parents, the Sato family all hugged each other as well. Aang and Jazzy, hugged and kissed each other, their wedding now only months away in early summer. Tal and his sisters just gave everyone their space and kept an eye on the food being prepared in the small kitchen. Their feast with only those who stayed back in the city had now became a meal with only small portions for everyone.

With the families now reunified, Korra, now seeing that Tal was out of the hospital, hugged him in her usual style. Pick them right off the ground and polar bear dog hug them. Tal flinched in pain as he realized , that although he was out of the hospital, he was still quite sore. Korra was too happy to see him that she didn't notice. Tal was finally released from her grip and greeted by the other adults. With all the greeting now finished, Katara's birthday meal was eaten quickly and soon she was opening gifts from everyone.

During this time, Tal had excused himself from this. He told everyone he needed from fresh air, so he put his old winter coat from Tree Line back on and walked out onto the porch. The winter air was cold and crisp but he didn't mind it as he had grown up in weather like this back home. The heavy coat and fur hat were more than able to keep Tal warm. He stood outside on the porch looking out over the city. The city was alive with noise and light as its inhabitants celebrated the holiday by eating lots of food and drinking a whole lot of alcohol.

He could hear a concert being performed outside from a nearby park, the band playing was performing a recent hit song another more popular group had released months before. He knew the song from hearing it over the radio and had begun to tip his foot to the beat as he kept looking over the city. The song was just getting to the good part when he was interrupted by a gloved hand tapping his shoulder. Her turned around to see Katara wearing a new Water Tribe coat she had just gotten only minutes before from her parents. She wore no hat as she was more used to the cold from being a daughter or a Water Tribe woman.

"You like it?" She asked him about the coat as he spun around once to let him get a full look at her in it. "Now we can both go to Tree Line and be warm."

"And just why do you think that you will be going to Tree Line with me?" He asked her with a bit of a flirt. He placed her in a hug and kissed her.

"Oh come on Tal, everyone knows that you and me aren't doing any more probending. So I'm going to help you in that little plan you thought of back in summer about restarting Tree Line." She looked up at him with her big beautiful blue eyes that always managed to hypnotize him. "After what happened last week, I just want to be right next to you at all times from now on."

He let go of her, "Katara, you do know that there are a whole bunch of people out there who want me and you dead." He held a hand out towards the lighted city. "Attacks like that which happened last week could happen at anytime, anywhere, and by anyone." He put his hands into the pockets of his coat. "If you and me were to say, get married, we would most likely have little to no time to ourselves. There might be times I could be gone for not only days or weeks, but even months and possibly years."

"Tal, I love you a whole lot and I don't care." She told him. "I don't care if I need to move all the way up to Tree Line just to be near you. We got years before we need to begin a family."

"Well," he told her, "We also got a year before we can get married, so I don't feel so bad about not proposing to you yet." He looked at her as could have sworn that she looked ready to punch him for that one. So he took his hands out of his pockets and pulled out his gift for her. "But since I know that you will probably kill me in my sleep if I didn't," he opened the box to reveal a Water Tribe betrothal necklace. "so I'll just do it now."

"Katara," he told her as he put it around her neck, "will you marry me?"

The only answer he got from her was a big kiss from her as she hugged him. He could hear hoops and cheers from back in the apartment as everyone had been watching the whole thing. He could see Korra, Asami and his sisters tear up a bit as well as Jazzy. To Katara, it was like a dream to her. She had that long feeling he was going to do it soon. Now it was official, the daughter of one Avatar, was now engaged to the other Avatar.

* * *

**Well, that's another chapter down on the table. I'm still hoping that a few readers not already faving or following this will do so now.**

**And I would really like it if some would leave reviews for this. I'm starting to feel as if nobody like all this. I'm hurt.**

**So please fav, follow, or leave reviews. It would mean the world to me and keep me in the mood to keep writing more.**


	38. Tal's Old Pal

**Well, I got another one down in the book. I'm introducing a few new characters here as I'm making this the unofficial "Book Two" of this story (AKA 'Season 2"). The all around butt kicking by Tal will take a break and for all those peoplewho dig drama, you finally get it after this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 38: Tal's Old Pal

The rest of the winter was spent by Tal getting back into shape after having to recover from his fight with the Equalists back in the arena. This meant doing as much pushups, pull-ups, crunches in his room as he could do when he wasn't on Air Temple Island running laps in the freezing cold wearing only enough clothing to not freeze. With the probending season now over, as well as his career in it, he could now get back to solely concentrating on mastering the last two elements, air and water.

His first official day of sole airbending training was the first day of spring. The snow was now gone and the grass and trees on the island were now back in bloom. He was by then back in shape and ready to go but found that his below average sized puffs of air he could do before, were now even smaller. This was a bit of an embarrassment to him when he told his new mentors, the original airbender kids. This omission resulted in being forced to meditate all day, Jinora's idea, to see if he could better later. The only result from that was even smaller puffs of air.

The next day ended up with him being forced to help Katara babysit not only her little brothers, but all the other airbender children as their parents had to go to the city. There was some big council meeting and Korra and Mako went as well, but the topic being discussed was not told to them. The air acolytes, were mostly gone on a meditative retreat to any of the four other air temples and only a few remained behind, they were busy making dinner. Tal, being not the best with children, was surprised to find that all of them wanted to see him free run like he had done months before when he had first shown up on the island.

He obliged their request and was after a few practice runs to refresh his rusty free running skills, running on rooftops and jumping across spaces, chasing down small paper planes the kids had made. They used airbending, at a level that Tal had earlier been able to do but now couldn't. The paper planes flew slow but true and stayed in the air, and almost always just out of Tal's reach. He almost had one once, but had to force himself to stop, or he would have jumped right off a roof an onto a bed of thorny roses. His clumsy appearance of trying to not fall that time made all the children laugh. Tal wasn't as happy, were they trying to help him learn airbending, or were they trying to kill him.

After that close call, he found another way to get back down onto the ground. The kids suddenly decided that this was the perfect time to play tag, with Tal being it first. He was surprised when he suddenly blocked a air gust from one of the children...with a much bigger air gust. He just stood there in amazement at what he just did. It was like the first time he airbended all over again. The first time had come while being on Tahno's ship after spending time at the North Pole...doing free running. Katara had come to this conclusion long before he could, so as her now-fiancé just stood there in shock, she walked up to him and kissed him quick and told him her theory. Tal had become to fixed to being on the ground and the free running had made him more "like the leaf" as the children called it.

For the rest of the day, with Tal now moving around more light on his feet, he showed off his airbending to the children who tried to copy him or one up on him. All of this was under the watchful eye of Katara who was in charge of keeping an eye of the smallest children, two toddler airbenders who were sound asleep in a play crib set up next to her spot on the main building's porch.

She laughed as Tal was suddenly dog piled by the dozen kids. His muffled voice could be heard coming from underneath the pile of giggling kids, "Katara, a little help if you would please?" She went over and had to began pulling off kids and found Tal flat on his back. She told the children to go and get ready for dinner and they all scurried off to wash up. By dinner, the adults had returned and Tal stayed to show up his returned airbending.

The next morning, he was back at it with training. This time, the only airbending master who stayed back was Meelo, the rest went back to the city for more secret meetings with the council. When Tal asked Meelo about what they were about, all he got was another round in the spinning gates of doom which he managed to only get hit twice. The advanced airbending practice kept this pace for the rest of that day as well. Tal found himself teacher less again the next morning, and was about to go help Katara babysit again.

Instead of doing that however, he decided to go see what was so important that the council needed to keep it a secret. Getting across the bay on the ferry seemed to him as child's play as the whole port was now teeming with cops. This was now the norm, the extra cops were now posted at the docks and at places of extra importance, like the council hall and the arena. To take care of this little issue, Tal had taken a set of Aang's police uniform weeks ago and tailored it to fit him. What was the worse the chief could do if he found out that Tal was moving around the city in a stolen uniform?

As he walked through the city towards Council Hall, nobody even gave him an extra glance. It wasn't until he reached it when he finally got close to blowing his cover. In front was a squad car and a person being taken out of it. The man was resisting, nearly overwhelming the four guards that held him. What was really interesting about this was that the guards were not average cops, but military police from the United Republic of Nations military.

Tal tried his best to avoid this but one of the guards yelled to him. "Hey! Can you give us a hand with this guy?" Tal walked over, he had an idea.

"Where in the heck did this guy come from if you U.R. folks are here?" he asked them without trying to change his voice. They had probably never heard him speak so he didn't think he need to try and mask his voice. His disguise had him using the facemask they used during cold weather, as it was still quite chilly at times in the city, and the trademark peaked cap of the police. Nobody would be able to know who he was.

"We caught him way up in that small town the Avatar's from." One of them told him as Tal grabbed the prisoner's bound hands and twisted them. The man shouted in pain and soon let them lead him where they need to go. "This one says he knew the Avatar personally. Claims to be the kid's best friend." Tal was surprised to hear that news and began to mentally list the very short amount of friends he had back up in Tree Line.

"Did he give you a name?" Tal asked them. "I thought that the entire town was wiped out but for those three kids."

"We all thought so too," one answered. "But this one was sneaking around there last among the abandoned homes and attacked us with what we thought was firebending. It turns out that he was in fact shooting us with one of those guns the Equalists used at the arena. This one here says his name is Markov."

The mention of the name Markov was what cause Tal to remember. He had been thinking of those few friends he had back in Tree Line, he wasn't thinking of those who lived up at the North Pole. Markov was indeed an Equalist, but in the real true sense of it. His parents were the family who took care of Tal and his sister when they were sent to the North Pole by their parents after Tal discovered he cold firebend as well as earthbend.

After what had happened at Tree Line, the family wanted the three teens to stay. Markov was the one who helped the three of them stow away aboard Tahno's ship. Markov and his family, wanted peace between benders and nonbenders, not for nonbenders to kill off all benders, like The Doctor.

Another cop waiting at the front door, led them to a room where Markov was placed in a chair at a questioning table. Tal volunteered to stay in the room while the others went to inform the council of the new prisoner. When Tal knew that the two of them wouldn't be disturbed for some time, he started his own questioning. "So tell me Markov, how's the family?"

This question made the man perk up his head. Curious as to why a cop would ask him that. "What makes you think that I have a family, cop. You don't know anything about me."

Tal of course did know, "Oh I do Markov, I know that you're originally from Tree Line but was force to move to the North Pole. And your family was once in league with the Equalists." This made the man begin to become more aggressive.

"We _were_ once with the Equalists, but not anymore!" He scolded at Tal. "My family and I betrayed them years ago after we found out I was a Earthbender. And then both my little sister was born a waterbender too."

"Yes, and your family secretly began to inform the U.R. on the Equalist's plots, but no one ever listened. You even had allies up in Tree Line too. You know, the three teens Mal, Mai, and May."

"Yes we did, and their real names were Tal, Tai and Tay. All three of them were just like us. Secretly supporting the Equalists all while raising three benders. And here's the funny part, Tal's the new Avatar!" He them broke into a short burst of laughter.

Tal could see that Markov was opening up on him. "So tell me Markov, what about the Avatar? Where you good friends with him? What about his family? Did you know his sisters well?" He paused for a few seconds. "...Or maybe they only hanged around with your sister...Vu?"

And in an instant, Markov was all defense again. "How do know all this!? How do you know about Vu? Do you have spies up at the North Pole? Where is Tal? He can hopefully vouch for me and my family. Please tell him that I'm here. He'll know who I am."

"Relax Markov," Tal told him as he finally removed the police cap and facemask the cops wore when outside to keep warm during the winter. "The amazing Avatar Tal is right here, ready to bail you out of any trouble you managed to get yourself into since last spring."

Markov was astonished to see his old friend. "Is that really you, Tal? How in the heck did you?...you know what never mind, I know better than to ask that to you that. We were raised to be Equalists for crying out loud. Your dad taught us everything about blending in."

Tal know he had probably a few more minutes before the council came to question his friend. "So how's the family? Sorry that me and the girls left so suddenly, but we needed to get to Republic City as soon as possible so I could know for sure if I was really the new Avatar."

"Oh don't worry about all that, Tal." Markov assured him. "The family is fine and we stopped worrying after that article about you in front of City Hall. My mom and dad were mad as heck but they stopped worrying after the found out you three took to probending to make a living." He grinned as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table. "The only really hard part was having to listen to my sister talk constantly about you."

Tal was about to ask Markov about what he meant by that, but heard voices coming from outside the room. The little reunion of the two old friends would have to be cut short right there until Tal could sort out the mess. He got up of his chair and put his disguise back on as he stood next to the door where a guard would normally stand watch over a detainee. He only had a few seconds to spare when the metal door was open via metalbending by Bolin. The old probender-turned-metalbender cop, unaware as to the hidden spy in the room, walked over behind Markov who only kept his eyes looking forward into nothing.

Korra and Mako stepping into the only seconds later as Bolin metalbended a nearby wall panel to reveal a large pane of glass. Tal had seen this before and knew that on the other side of the mirrored glass was another room most likely occupied by the rest of the United Republic of Nations Council. "You can leave now, officer," Mako ordered him.

"This is a very dangerous man, Chief." Tal told him trying to feign concern. "It took five of us to restrain him and get him in here."

"There is no need to be concerned." Mako scolded at him angrily. "You do know that one of the Avatar's is in here?"

"Correction, Chief," Tal joked as he removed his hat and facemask. "You have both the Avatars here." The others, except for Markov who just sat there without emotion, leapt back with surprise. Tal could have sworn he head a muffled yell from next door as well. "Don't worry about this guy here, folks," Tal explained. "This guy here is Markov, he was my best friend back up in Tree Line when we were younger."

Markov now started talking. "Yep, me and Tal here go way back. We're both benders born to Equalist parents. Only real differences here are that I'm not also an Avatar, and that Tal's family stayed in Tree Line. My family fled to the North Pole after the Equalist saw my little sister waterbend back when me and Tal were only 14 or so."

The three adults in the room were dumbstruck. Bolin was speechless, trying to process what had just happened. Mako too was speechless, his mouth hung open as he too tried to think of what to say. Korra however, looked as if she had seen a ghost, and sat down in the chair Tal had been sitting in earlier as she began to feel faint. It was a few more long painful silent seconds before Korra finally broke out into questions.

"What are you doing here?...Why where you in Tree Line?...Why aren't you practicing your airbending?...Why didn't you surrender to U.R. troops?...Why didn't you tells us about him?...Do you have any intel on the Equalists?...Where's Katara?...Where's your family?..."

Korra went on like this for another minute with questions about Markov's past, or very defensive questions as to where her daughter was and what she was doing if she wasn't with Tal. Mako was finally able to calm her down, seeing as it was a good thing that he had come, although his method of doing so was a tad bit unorthodox. If Tal had not come, Markov might have been sent to rot in prison, as what most of the council had voted in favor of doing to anyone who had any Equalist ties. Only Korra, himself and the airbenders had voted against it, citing the rights for fair trials.

With Tal's word that Markov was a good guy, he was released from custody. Mako decided that since he had been through a rough day and was old friends of his future son-in-law, Markov was invited to join them all dinner on Air Temple Island. They were soon all on their way to dinner, the ferry ride was uneventful, the only real surprise to Tal was hearing that the now 16 year old Vu had one heck of secret crush on him.

Back on the island, Markov was still the perpetual ladies man that Tal remembered him as. When Tal introduced him to his lovely fiancé, Markov kissed Katara's hand like a perfect gentleman as she blushed as Markov told Tal that she had to be one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. And this was one hell of a complement, as he had plenty of cute girls to look at back up at the North Pole.

Dinner was just like it back when Tal and his sisters first came to the island almost a year before. All of Korra's family was there, including Aang and Jazzy, just back from their honeymoon over in the Fire Nation. Bolin brought over the whole Sato family. All the airbenders and their children were there along with Tai and Tay. The only person missing from all this was Ru who had retired from probending to enter his family's booming tea shop business.

Ru had taken to it like a fish to water, he was overseeing the opening of five new branches in Ba Sing Se alone this week. Their main attraction, is the hundreds of teas with medicinal properties, ranging from stopping headaches, all the way to lessening the pain of a woman's period. They even had a top secret formula, that might possibly be able to act as a form of birth control if taken every day.

Everyone was amazed as Markov told them of how he had been venturing into the old town of Tree Line every few weeks on expeditions to recover items of value that and his family stored in a collection that they believed belonged in a Museum. The collection was cataloged so well, if survivors were ever to appear, their possessions would be returned to them. Korra told him that a few dozen survivors had indeed been liberated from work camps at Wolfbat Falls and were being medically treated at hospitals all over the Earth Kingdom.

However, all this happiness was suddenly stopped when he accidentally said that he had to skip town from the North Pole for a while. Mako, asked him as to why. Markov, after seeing that lying wasn't going to help his cause, finally admitted that he was wanted by the chief of the Northern Water Tribe. Markov had supposedly stopped the marriage of one of the princesses of the tribe to a boy from the Southern Water Tribe by being caught kissing the engaged princess while at a festival a few weeks before.

Korra, had stopped eating during all this. She had heard of the incident, her own cousin Desna was the chief of the tribe. His twin sister, an ex-girlfriend of Bolin while Asami was dating Iroh, had tried to stopped the arrest of whoever was responsible, but the person had escaped. In fact, he had escaped to Tree Line, and now was sitting in that room. An Air Acolyte entered the room, announcing to Korra that her cousins were calling her on the phone from all the way up at the North Pole.

Desna had found out where Markov was.

* * *

**Well how about that, Tal's buddy Markov is in a whole lot of trouble! Now here comes the drama! Markov was caught kissing Katara's second cousin (or is is third cousin?).**

**Anyways, thankyou greatly to those who have faved of followed this story. And even many more thanks to those who have left reviews.**


	39. The New Guy In Town

**Because I was able to find some free time this week, and because I will not be able to write at all this weekend...here's a new chapter!**

**I will be giving my explanation of what I think will happen during the upcoming Season 2 of the show. And also try to redeem one of our more hated characters in other peoples' stories. I'm also taking this chapter as the way to introduce you all to our new villian for the season.**

* * *

Chapter 39: The New Guy In Town

Family was something that Korra was very sure she was good with handling. All that time of learning healing from Sifu Katara down at the South Pole. The many days and nights spent babysitting the airbender kids for Tenzin and Pema. The fact that she had given birth to four children herself, two of which were twins. Her eldest son was now married and living on his own with his lovely new wife. Her only daughter was engaged to a wonderful man, who just so happened to be an Avatar. Her youngest children behaved most of the time and were learning their schooling well and also learning their bending fast as well. This all solidified her belief that she could handle family matters well.

But never when it involved her twin cousins. Desna and Kirima were...different. They had always acted in almost the complete opposite of her. Ever since they were kids, she had always been confused as to why they acted so strangely. They were considered more spiritual than Korra, a little hurdle she needed to cross to be able airbend at will. She even had to spend a good year with Mako and Bolin up at the North Pole with her cousins, while Asami stayed in warm Republic City. The company Mako gave her made it bearable. Bolin made it fun too and had even managed to make Kirima warm up a bit to them all as he stated a short lived relationship with her.

It was only by luck that all that didn't end in ruin when Asami showed up one day in one of her planes. She nearly crashed it because she was crying so badly. She told them about how Iroh had been forced to break up with her by the Fire Nation ruling court because she wasn't a royal. He tried to end it kindly and promised her that she would still be one of his closest friends. She was crying because she was remembering all the good times they had together while the others were gone. She stopped her crying only after Bolin hugged her.

That hug sent things spiraling into madness. Kirima, had finally just begun to act more like a girl because of Bolin, and now he was hugging and comforting another girl, a much more pretty girl. This made Kirima mad and she confronted Bolin about it. He tried with great effort to calm her down, saying that he only did it because Asami was a good friend. But Kirima, with her more powerful connection to spirituality, could see that Asami had a liking for the earthbender. She ended her relationship with Bolin right there on the spot and spent a few good weeks being much more cold to the group than before. Even Desna, who had also lightened up a bit as well, had also reverted to his old self out of sheer protection for his sister.

Those weeks of the twins being like that were rough on Korra. All the progress she had made before then seemed to just vanish. Mako had Bolin had a fight and accused Bolin of using Kirima. That was something she shouldn't have said because Asami was there and accused Mako of doing the same to her just so that he could get Korra. Only one person in the world Korra though could make it any worse be merely just showing up. And the day after the fight between her friends, that one person showed up...Tahno.

Korra and Mako bumped into him accidently when shopping at a market one morning. Mako accused him of stalking Korra. Tahno told them he was only returning to Republic City to live with his parents, who lived up at the North Pole, since Korra still hadn't restored his bending yet up to this point. They didn't but it but relented after he took them to meet his family. Tahno's family was poor and had to rely on waterbending just to make a living as fishermen since they had to leave the Foggy Swamp because of the decline of fish there. Tahno's probending earnings went to help his family.

After seeing this, Korra had a revelation, she saw that Tahno wasn't truly bad. He only cheated so that he could send more to his family. He acted like an jerk before because he always was one. his younger siblings proved it but Korra saw that he had stopped being such a jerk after Amon/Noatak had taken away his bending. Because of all of this, Korra made a deal with Tahno. She would return his bending only if he swore to never cheat again and to continue sending his earnings to his family. He agreed, and his bending was restored.

The only problem Tahno had now...was where to get money. He had sworn to himself he would never go back to probending. The temptation to cheat again was just too great, and he didn't want to go back to Republic City. Mako helped him with that issue. The firebender might have done it because he saw that Tahno had changed, or maybe he just wanted the "jerkbender" as far away from them as possible. He had suggested working at the North Pole's docks or getting a job on one of the many ships.

Tahno went with the ship idea, and he turned out to be good at it. Weeks after all this, and the twins still being all sore about Bolin and Asami, Tahno showed up again, only this time being the first officer of a supply ship. He had received the promotion after being able to save the ship during a storm. And then he saved it from a raiding band of pirates down around the South Pole.

He was being called a local hero and a big feast was held. Korra and the others had to go as important guests, fearing the whole matter, thinking that Tahno would once again be all big in the head. The ceremony included Tahno being rewarded a medal that made him an official member of royalty by being a hero.

They could never be more from the truth. Tahno really had changed. He was much more reserved, not bragging and he never claimed to be a hero. He merely said he was just doing his job. Mako and Korra wanted to call him out but it was Kirima who proved to them that the former cheater had turned to good finally. Kirima could sense it because she was much more spiritual. She told them that she was over the whole fiasco with Bolin and wanted to be friends again. Tahno, out of thankfulness for her backing him up in all of this, asked Kirima out on a date to thank her.

From there on, things began to improve. Kirima started dating Tahno and warmed up again to everyone. Desna did too, after seeing his twin all happy. Bolin and Asami ended up being a couple. Korra and Mako stayed the same happy couple, even after all that and other scrapes that go into with all the spirits that had to go against that year. The only really unhappy person out of all of this was Kirima's father, Unalaq the chief of the Northern Water Tribe. He wanted Kirima to marry some royal from the Southern Tribe, Earth Kingdom, or even the Fire Nation. Tahno ended this argument, reminding Unalaq that the medal was given makes him a royal too.

Years later, and now Captain Tahno was married to Kirima. Korra still didn't like that too much. Desna ended up marrying some rich girl has dad told him to marry, which wasn't too bad in the end. Asami and Bolin later ending up marrying each other...only months after Mako and Korra got married...

...Now, it had been years since that fateful time in the North Pole. Korra now had to explain to her cousin, the current chief of the Northern Water Tribe, just as to why she was harboring a wanted fugitive in her home. All of this because Tal's friend was kissed by Desna's daughter. In her office, Korra sat behind her desk as the two boys entered the room, followed by Mako and the others.

Korra, seeing as she will need them to get her through this conversation with Desna. She pressed a button to allow the speaker on the console to be used. She herself picked up the receiver and spoke, "Desna, pleasure to hear from you." She was trying to sound like she had no clue as to why he was calling.

Desna's voice screamed throughout the room, Korra had to cover the receiver. "Korra! What is this I'm hearing about you harboring that boy who stole my Yue's honor!" He was certainly mad. "I just got a call from Councilman Nahatak, telling me that Markov was busted out of U.R. custody by you and that Tal boy!"

"Oh...," Korra spoke into the receiver. "...that little thing. Why are you so upset Desna? Markov is here in Republic City, not up at the North Pole. He is now nowhere near Yue."

"Korra!," Desna's voice thundered back. "The father of the boy who was dating my Yue is accusing us of dishonoring their family. He is saying Yue is a loose girl and was sleeping with Markov behind our backs!" Korra looked over at Markov who shook his head no to show his innocence. "It's been a month since that picture was taken of him and my daughter kissing and the tabloids here are still having a field day!"

"What do you want me to do, Desna!" Korra herself screamed into the receiver. "If I hand the boy over, your men will send him to prison for doing nothing but being at the wrong place at the wrong time!"

Korra's yelled seemed to have calmed Desna down a bit. He was no longer screaming. "Korra...I know that already. Yue told me about all of it. She had locked herself in her room for days before she finally let me come in and talk to her. She told me that she was just simply thanking Markov for all the work he and his family were doing to preserve Tree Line." Everyone in the room sighed in relief.

"Well, what about the other family?" Korra asked her cousin.

"They have taken back their offer to have their son marry Yue." Desna answered. "I'm not happy about having to offer her up like this Korra. But you know full well that it is a tradition we hold here very sacredly. But a marriage between her and that boy would hopefully bring a cooperation between us and the people of the Foggy Bottom Swamp. I'm just very upset I'm being told the truth finally now after all this time...I finally got Yue to talk to me."

"Desna, Yue hadn't even meet that boy yet." Korra told him. "Markov has every right if Yue was the one who kissed him first. He seems like a good enough boy and Tal is backing him up. Markov and his family are not Equalists anymore, they had defected years ago...before they had even moved to the North Pole."

"Thank you Korra," He sounded. "Your word alone will help calm the other family and hopefully stop the stories in the papers. If I manage to clear his name of any Equalist connections, I'll promise to stop that damn tradition of ours. That will allow Markov to come back and date Yue...she really wants to make it up to him for all the trouble he had gone through."

Korra sighed in relief again. If Markov was cleared, he could date and marry Yue...problem solved. "Thank you Desna, I'll tell him the news." She looked over to see Markov and Tal high fiving each other and Tai and Tay soon hugging him. "I will also like you to know that we will be going up to Tree Line soon. If Nahatak is actually worth your appointment of him to the council, he would have also told you that we have decided to send funds and material to help rebuild and hopefully reoccupy Tree Line."

That news made Tal fell like he was going to cry. He soon found himself being hugged on three sides by Tai, Tay, and Katara...all of which were already crying tears of joy. It was news that couldn't be ignored, Tree Line was going to rise out of the ashes. Korra bid her cousin farewell and hung up. Yet another crisis averted...

Time went on by as everyone waited for the spring thaw to happen up around Tree Line. Markov went back to the North Pole the week after he was cleared and Desna called Korra again to tell her the whole matter had indeed cleared up. He even said the boy had grown on him and told Korra that Markov was a good match for Yue. This was affirmed when Tal received alter from his old friend which even included a picture of him Yue on one of their many dates.

Tal's schedule didn't change much during the three months from news of Tree Line's rebuilding proposal up to the spring thaw. He would spend the morning and afternoon practicing airbending with either Korra of one of the airbender adults. Evenings were spent with Katara either going over the plans of Tree Line as a whole, or just how they were going to rebuild his parents old house up there. The two of them decided that Tal needed to be up there and it was decided that his old home could be reused by him and Katara after they were married. The apartment in Republic City would still remain under their ownership as well, as their second home, when they needed to stay in Republic City.

Everything seemed to be going well now for Tal. He was engaged to a beautiful young woman. He was progressing in his training faster than ever before. His had helped his best friend out of a jam, and his home town was going to be reconstructed to be bigger and better than before. His sisters were now also engaged, after a lot of begging from Ru and Hiroshi. But one thing still bothered Tal...where was The Doctor, and what had ever happened to him?

None of the bodies of the Equalists he had killed were him, for he knew what the man look like. Other captured agents, after much questioning, had told them that he had come to the arena, but had to go meet a important benefactor. When questioned as to the identity of the benefactor, no one could give them any intel other than that they funded the whole cause and had to drawing from an immense storage of wealth.

Tal's worries about the possible return of the Equalists where put on the backburner one day when he accompanied Mako and Korra to a council meeting. He had been asked to come along on numerous previous meeting, but Korra told him that a new representative for the Earth Kingdom had been appointed by the Earth King and had finally arrived in the city and wanted to meet the Avatars.

Newly appointed councilman Shen Wo Han was a mystery to everyone. Nobody on the council really knew anything about the man from Gaoling. A few rumors were being circulated that he had connections to the old Bei Fong family. Wo Han was rumored be a descendant of a man to have been given the Bei Fong estate after the passing of the family, their one daughter Toph, a member of the original Team Avatar, had decline to receive any of the wealth. That immense wealth could have possibly bought him a spot on the council.

The meeting with Shen Wo Han was very interesting. Tal and Korra met with Ho Wan and he acted like he had nothing to hide. He was a bender , but showed a letter from the Earth King himself that Wo Han was picked because he could also appeal to nonbenders as his family had supposedly been killed when a gangster group of various benders had attempted to rob the estate, but had failed. In fact, he told them that he would be more pro-nonbender in his agenda than pro-bender. Just the way he told them that made Tal know that this man was trouble. He was a politician, just trying to stay in office to reap the benefits of such a high position.

The council meeting itself was nothing more than them listening to various ideas from each other as to how Tree Line would be rebuilt and expanded. Tal begged for the original town, which was situated on an long island in the delta at the mouth of the Wolfbat River, to become a historic district. The idea was for it to be preserved in the state is was right before the Equalist massacre. The land surrounding the town that was forested was to become a nature preserve, and the barren unused land was plotted to become new real estate for home and businesses that might want to relocate to the town.

The small port that was on the town's northern end, would become a new naval base for the United Republic military. The old airstrip would become a new military air base for airships, Sato biplanes, and Cabbage Corp. air choppers. The majority of the early jobs coming to the town would be military related. This was when Tal's assumption of Wo Han proved to be correct, the councilman had to always criticize this build up of U.R. troops in Earth Kingdom territory. He promised to vote down any such move as he, and the Earth King too, feared that this was a threat to Earth Kingdom security.

Tal laughed at that comment. A threat to Earth Kingdom security? When was adding more U.R. troops considered dangerous? It's not like the Earth Kingdom's separate military helped protect Tree Line from being massacred. And now councilman Wo Han was saying that this is a threat to them. By the end of the now stalled talks on Tree Line, both Korra and Tal looked like they wanted to dangle Wo Han off of Harmony Tower until he changed his mind about the addition of troops to the town.

Both Avatars and the police chief spent the trip back to Air Temple Island fuming about the man. The previous bender representative for the Earth Kingdom had been a staunch advocate for helping to bring life back to that part of the region. But suddenly, the Earth King appoints a new representative to take over this position. The Earth Kingdom was the only member of the United Republic of Nations who appointed their council members without an election by the public being held.

This new guy in town was someone who to be careful of.

* * *

**Well I hope everyone loved that chapter. I managed to get a lot of info in there I think, I hope I didn't start to confuse people. **

**Maybe if I get a lot of favs, follows, and or reviews from people this weekend, I'll postpone my next chapter and replace it with a major fluff chapterbetween our two favorite lovebirds. Any suggestions as to hope to label their ship? Tal x Katara.**

**And finally, thankyou to those who have already answered my requests for reviews and favs. YOU ALL ROCK!**


	40. The Fortune Teller

**Sorry for the long wait again. My schedule does let me write a lot...but it's all school work on history papers, not fanfiction. Anyway, I finally managed to get a nice little chapter into my spring break when I wasn't the Brewers get beaten at several different ballbarks around the Phoenix area last week. I fly all the way down there from Milwaukee to watch them get beat!**

**Okay, enough ranting. I got a new chapter for you all.**

* * *

Chapter 40: The Fortune Teller

The appointment of councilman Shen Wo Han began to get on everyone's nerves as the weeks dragged on. The talks for Tree Line's rebuilding had now been completely stalled. The whole project now looked dead in the water. Wo Han cited regulation after regulation in treaties between the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation that were made back at the end of the Hundred Year War. This prevented anything other than supplies, people and funds from anywhere outside of the Earth Kingdom, to go to the town. And the Earth Kingdom has a greatly mismanaged budget that prevented any more funds to be given out.

That budget however, did allow for the councilman to host a large dinner parties. And both Avatars were invited to one of these parties. A big costume party, one evening a week later. Tal's suspicions about the new councilman seemed to be well placed. The date for the party was on Tal's own birthday. Korra, having had previous experiences with council members trying to get on her good side, like Tarrlok, assumed that this was being done so Wo Han could influence Tal into something. Seeing that they had no other choice than to attend, they agreed to go attend. But they were well on the alert to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, and even possibly try and discredit Wo Han.

Tal had other things to worry about that day other than this party being held. Katara wanted to take him out on yet another date and help him celebrate his birthday. This one at a carnival that was visiting the city. She told him that she would be at his apartment late in the morning to get him, so Tal went to bed the night ready to go on another wonderful date with his lovely fiancé. However, he was unaware as to what Katara and his sisters were planning.

Katara, did have a plan. She had been in league with Tai and Tay as to how they could prank Tal on his birthday. Tai had a great idea. One which had her future sister-in-law arriving early at the apartment well before sunrise. Going along with the plan, Katara then stripped down from her street clothes and with extreme care, slowly snuck her way into Tal's room. She was now wearing only her most racy pair of underwear she had. Tal had never seen it, and Tai and Tay nearly went into hysterical laughter when they saw her in it. They knew Tal had seen Katara in her many swimsuits and dozens of dresses of various modesty levels, and even in her under wear a few times on a few long date nights. But this time, Tal was surely going to lose himself when he saw her. The girls were sure of it. Tal might be an Avatar, but he was also an young adult, hormonally enraged male.

Once inside the room, Katara had to move through the dark and get into Tal's bed without waking him up. She wasn't really worried about waking him up when she go into the room. Tal was fast asleep and she could knew her fiancé, although he did not snore, was a very heavy sleeper. He had once slept through a big thunderstorm during the summer. Katara made it and got in under the sheets. She gave herself some distance between him and her.

When the sun rose through bedroom window, Tal stirred a bit, but didn't get up. He instead rolled over, still with his eyes closed, and his arm came right down onto something that he knew was not supposed there. Katara was awake for this and felt his arm go over her. Still seeing the plan was still a go, she feigned stirring from sleep. "Sweetie...it's too early to get up." She said acting tired with a bit of flirting in her voice.

Tal woke up to that and the first thing he saw was Katara, in his bed with in him. _She's not supposed to be here! Why is she in my bed? And what in the world is she wearing? Did we have...?_ Katara was in his bed and what she was wearing caused his nose to suddenly hurt and bleed. As this happened, Tai and Tay barge through the door to see their brother leap out of his bead with a yell of either surprise or terror. A flash came from a camera as Tai took a picture in which Katara sitting up in the bed flashing a big grin at Tal, she just stood there in only his underwear holding his nose as he had a bloody nose from seeing Katara like that. The three girls laughed madly as Tal blushed. He knew he had been pranked. He would need to get back at them for this.

The rest of that morning consisted of the now fully clothed lovers sitting on the couch as the twins made everyone breakfast. Tal still had tissues shoved up his nose as Katara laid over his lap and gave him numerous kisses as she kept flirtingly apologizing for the prank. Breakfast consisted of the girls singing to him as he was given a plate of pancakes with a candle on top. He blew it out easily with a little airbending, although Tai tried to kept it lit with firebending. Afterwards, everyone went to see the carnival that had been going on in the park for the week.

The two lovers shared various snacks and drinks as they played a few carnival games which resulted with Katara hugging a large adorable stuffed otter-penguin toy as Tal carried a stuffed flying lemur toy. They were about to go see about going on a ride or two when Katara noticed a tent with a sign in the front. _Have Your Fortune Told By The Best...Madame Mei._ This got Katara interested and she managed to get Tal to agree to come with for a try. He didn't believe in that stuff, but after the events of the last year...anything could be true.

When they entered the tent, they were greeted by a young teenage girl who introduced herself as Madame Wei's assistant. She instantly recognized the couple from newspaper articles she had read and eagerly led them to the aging Madame Wei. The elderly lady, who from the many pictures that were all around the tent, must have been one pretty lady when she was younger. She told them that she had been trained under the great Madame Meng who had met Avatar Aang during his travels.

Seeing as she too knew who they were, she skipped her usual predictions of who they would fall in love with and went right to how the two of them would live together. Things began to get interesting as she made the two of them hold her hands as she them looked into a crystal ball she had at the table they sat at. Tal's belief in fortune telling as a hoax was dashed to pieces as Madame Wei's eyes suddenly rolled back into her head as she still appeared to gaze into the crystal ball.

Tal was about to have a mini freak out. The young assistant placed a hand on the two teens to assure them that everything was okay. But she also did tell them that this was a thing the old lady did not normally do. She usually only looked at tea leaves or tarot cards for her normal business. Crystal ball reading was reserved for only those willing to pay a great deal more in Yuans than others. Not only was she doing this for little payment, she was going to give them a 100% accurate and real prophecy. She had only seen her teacher do this only once before.

Madame Wei, who had been silent during all this suddenly spoke. "I see an island in the sea." Her voice sounded dry an her eyes stayed rolled back in her head. "On this island is a small village...It looks almost Fire Nation in nature...In this village is an orphanage...I see a group of children playing in its yard."

The old lady sat silent for a minute as she kept her vigil on the ball. Tal and Katara looked at each other, wondering as to how this would play into their futures. The lady began to smile and soon spoke again. "In this group of children, a fight broke out...I saw a young girl pick on another smaller young girl...They appear to be no older than 6 or so...The two girls begin to fight...they are firebenders..The younger girl fights back as the other bigger one attacks her with fire."

Tal had an idea what the old fortune teller was seeing. She was seeing the next Avatar. Wei soon continued to speak, her voice beginning to sound even more dry and now much weaker. Tal began to worry that this was prediction was harming the old lady. "The fight soon ends...The little girl attacks with lightning...The other children scream in horror as they watch it... But then what I see is even more special...The little girl wins the fight not with firebending...but with a large gust of airbending." Tal's assumptions were right, Madame Wei had just prophesied the coming of next Avatar. An female Avatar from the Fire Nation.

This was good news and Tal looked over at Katara who looked just as happy and amazed at this announcement. The fortune teller however, wasn't finished. Now came some disturbing news."You two will train this new Avatar and treat her like she was your own child." She turned her head a bit towards Katara as if she was speaking directly to her. "You also will have children, but not as many as you want...No pain or death, just no time."

She turned towards Tal and spoke as well."War will soon break out on this world...You will try to stop it boy...but you can only stop the bleeding for so long...War again will break out, and you will lose your allies...friends...and even some of your family." Tal's dislike for fortunetellers came back to him as he was now scared as to what would this meant. Didn't he have enough crud to deal with in his life already?

Madame Wei kept on speaking. "When the world looks lost...You will find it...When you are lost to the world, they will find you...Your last act on this world will be the one thing that stops all this." And soon Wei's eyes were normal again and she coughed lightly as she fell out of the trance she was in. Her voice was normal again as she acted as if she has no clue as to what had just happened. She could only continue to gaze into the ball.

Katara and Tal helped the assistant to get Madame Wei into a more comfortable chair to rest from the ordeal. The young girl went to get tea from a back room and returned minutes later and told the two teens that they could leave. Madame Wei had fallen asleep and the girl gave them a small card with a phone number if they were even needed to be reached. With all of that, Tal was nearly dragging Katara out of the tent. He was in a hurry to not stay there and he wanted to get home fast. Katara could see that this encounter had left her fiancé quite troubled.

Katara didn't like to be led around by the hand, so Tal was now getting on her nerves as he led her out of the carnival. "Sweetie," she said as she managed to wrestle her hand out of Tal's strong grip. "I know that fortune wasn't exactly very promising but it is just a fortune. " She managed to also get Tal to stop and made him sit with her at a bench on the sidewalk. "My mom told me that fortune tellers are not always right." She looked over at Tal who was fuming at what his fate was deemed to be by Madame Wei.

"Katara," Tal said to her as he hugged her tightly on that bench. "She said there is going to start a war. A war that I stop only to have another break out. And that I die to stop it." He hugged her tighter. He was hoping no reporters were nearby thinking that the city's most popular couple were in the middle of a little public display of affection. "I don't want out life together to be ruined by war."

"It's not going to destroy or lives Tal," Katara told him as she kissed him on the cheek. "You are an Avatar. You took down a hundred Equalists only months ago. You and my mom are the greatest benders on the world."

Tal stopped their hug and grabbed Katara by her arms and looked right at her. "Sweetheart...I nearly died from that battle. I was lucky...if I hadn't gone into the Avatar State, who knows what might have happened?" He looked deep into those amazing blue eyes of hers. "I'm going to try and make sure that this war never even starts." Katara could see that he was determined to do such.

It was a few more minutes before Tal felt ready to go home. Right after the fortune was old, he wanted to get home ASAP...now he didn't want o go home. The first thing he would see when he entered it would be all the plans for Tree Line that had now become only dreams instead of being a reality. All that he had worked for other than his Avatar training had now failed. His home was being pushed aside to become nothing more than a deserted ghost town.

He just wanted it to be made alive again for him to return and live there with Katara and start a family there. Not here in Republic City, this was not _home_ to him. The apartment and Katara's place was just not where he felt most at peace. The only time he ever felt at peace was when he and the others were allowed to visit the town a month after he was released from the hospital. It was only a day trip, but for those very few hours up there, Tal felt whole.

Katara already knew about all this. She welcomed the idea of leaving Republic City, her place of her birth, for a life in a small town up north. She loved the idea and dreamed often about the life she would have with Tal. She wanted to have a big family and the plans Tal had for the town were going to make sure that everyone would live in peace and harmony.

This whole fortune or prophecy as she was beginning to see it as, was going to destroy their plans for a happy life. How could a whole out war start? The Equalists could never gather enough support to start one after the last attack. Reports were coming in every so often about internal power struggles in the revolutionary group. Every new possible leader was being taken out by another. Agents and spies were being arrested once in awhile. Their last great leader turned out to be another bloodbender like Amon.

Their leaders were benders whose only goal was to be the only benders left on earth, so that they could rule over it as with their powers. The Equalist cause was now nothing more than just a fairy tale. Sure, others might true to resurrect it. But in the end, any movement that threatened the lives of half the world's population would never be popular enough to gain respect.

Tal knew that as an Avatar, he needed to fix this issue. Korra alone could not do it, not even with help from Mako, Bolin, or Asami. It had now been over twenty years since the rise of the Equalists. Twenty years since Korra first beat Amon, only to have new threats from the Equalists come up time and again. The adult Avatar from the South Pole might still be quite a fighter, and so were her family and friends. But now time had taken some of that from them. They needed help.

That was why Tal was here. The spirits deemed it necessary that the world now needed two Avatars. The world needed Avatar Tal.

The now 19 year old teen from the Far Northern Earth Kingdom needed to embrace his destiny. He was the Avatar...and he had to deal with it. Tal got up from the bench and helped Katara stand up. They walked the rest of the way back to the apartment hand in hand. The party they were to attend started in only a few hours, and their costumes took time to prepare.

* * *

**And that's it for now. Hopefully a nice little fluff chapter with a little foresight. **

**Thankyou to those who have read this story and faved it since the last update. **

**And a thousand thanks to those who do leave reviews.**


	41. The New Revelation

**Sorry about the wait, but now I got a good idea of how the next "Book" in this story will go. I've been a bit busy a school with papers and tests, and my nightly job has me working like a rented mule. I also have my upcoming weekend taken up by other commitments, so I decided to work hard and get another update for everyone. This proves that I have not forgotten about you readers out there.**

**Now that we finally found out more about season 2, I might have to go back and edit some of my earlier posts. I've also noticed how bad my typing was in the first dozen chapters. Maybe I should start looking for someone to edit this stuff?**

**This chapter will be nice and have a lot of meat in it to really get things moving. **

**I hope that you all enjoy it.**

* * *

Chapter 41: The New Revelation

Ever since the appointment of Shen Wo Han to the Ruling Council. The public had been gossiping about the wealth he brought with him and flaunted. Stories of him spending his wealth on frivolous things around the city grew in number. Tal had heard many of them and believed only a few little of them. His disbelief in Wo Han's immense wealth was dashed to pieces when a stretch Satolimo parked outside the apartment's front door.

He had seen plenty of these things since arriving in Republic City almost a year before. There were many of them driving around the city, but he and his sisters had never been inside one of them. Not even Tai, obviously dating a Sato didn't mean riding around in a limo. Asami favored her much smaller sports Satomobile that she personally drove. That meant the Sato family didn't even own a Satolimo. As for Tay, Ru's family was getting richer by the day, but they too didn't even own such a vehicle.

All six teens had been at the apartment changing into their costumes for the party. It was going to be hours before the party but they would have to walk all the way to the Wo Han mansion. It would take a hour or two to walk there as a group, but the limo outside dashed that plan. Tal and Katara had to nearly interrogate the driver to get answers about why Wo Han was doing this. The poor man in the end really didn't know anything, other than there were other drivers picking up all the other guests at their homes. There was even one waiting at the port for Korra, Mako and the airbenders.

Seeing that a free car ride was better than walking all the way to the party, they all reluctantly got in. Katara watched Tal the entire way to the party. Either he was thinking it was a trap, or he was still all riled up about what had happened at the carnival earlier that day. He eyes were either on the surroundings outside or on the driver in front. Katara even saw a flash of his hidden blades. He wasn't wearing them earlier that day but she was fearing they would check him at the door for weapons.

The limo stopped on the far side on the city in what was one of the most wealthiest neighborhoods. It was far on the outskirts of the city and only the mountains surrounding the city was all that separated them for the Earth Kingdom territory. The limo drove up a very long winding drive way and stopped at the front door of a mansion that was much bigger than even the Sato Mansion. All of them stood in amazement at the sight before them. Even without all the party decorations, the mansion would have been a sight.

Councilman Wo Han was pulling out all the stops for this party. And this is what made Tal nervous. There was no holiday, today was only his birthday. And nobody but a very few people knew that. There was no need for this party. Unless the councilman was so rich, wasting money was simply just a hobby like collecting stamps.

When they all entered the mansion, they were instantly met with the sight of all of Republic City's most popular, well-known, rich and famous people. Hundreds of them lingered around the main ball room. Everyone was in costume, many of which were clear references, others simply wore a mask to cover their faces. Tal was about to go and see if he could find a bathroom when Korra suddenly showed up with Mako.

The elder Avatar was dressed in what only few women could pull off...The Painted Lady. It was a water spirit that lived in a river which protected the people who lived nearby. Katara had been told stories of how her namesake had once dressed as the spirit to help a village near a large Fire Nation factory. Mako was dressed as the Blue Spirit, a alias once used by Fire Lord Zuko when he was still exiled as a Fire Nation Crown Prince.

Tal's sisters and their fiancés had already disappeared into the crowd but Korra and Tal had been stopped by a servant who told them that they were being introduced to the crowd because of their status as Avatars. There was going to be a ceremony where all the top guests were to be introduced in front of the others. This meant that when the party would officially start, the council people and the Avatars would be introduced. That made Tal's stomach cringe. He was hoping his costume would hide his identity from the crowd.

Seeing as he had no say in the matter, Tal stayed at the ball room's entrance. At least he had Katara with him. When a nearby clock tolled to signal the official start of the party, the servant signaled the crowd to cease talking. One at a time, he announced the names of the council members as they entered. The Airbenders, the Water Tribes, and the Fire Nation. Then came the Earth Kingdom representatives, including the host Wo Han who got a much longer introduction and a much larger applause after it. To cap off the performance, the Avatars.

Korra was introduced first and walked in to just as much applause as Wo Han as she was escorted by Mako. Then came Tal. "Ladies and gentleman," the servant announced just like all the others. "Avatar Tal!" He walked out of the door and into a room filled with even more cheering than Korra. Everyone was cheering and clapping their hands...except Councilman Wo Han. It was just him and Katara there, being cheered like back in the arena.

Tal could only stand there in amazement at the ovation he was getting. Katara went with a costume to make her look like one of the Kyoshi warriors. He was wearing a slightly different version of his old tribal outfit from the Probender Ball. The main part of his costume however, was that his face was painted by Katara. The side with his green eye had some red and black tribal war paint. The side with the red eye however, was painted to look like a skull. He did carry his hidden blades but all his other nonbender weapons had to be left at home. He did however, carry with him the empty sheaths and his bow for the affect.

As he lead Katara down some steps and onto the ballroom floor, Tal hoped that everyone there had been doing their readings. He had been spending the last few weeks of the stalled talks about Tree Line to occasionally mention the region's patron spirit...The Assassin of the North. An ancient tribal nonbender who had waged war against the First Earth King...and was killed. Ever since the massacre, many books about the region and its history had been published as people wanted to know about the area where Tal called home.

With the whole introductions ceremony done, the party finally go into full swing. For the first hour or so Tal stayed right next to Katara who many wanted to talk to. Many people were congratulating them on their engagement. Others came over to complement on their costumes. One movie star guest said that the two of them could have easily passed off for actors themselves if they ever want to go into acting. All this attention was making Katara gleam. Tal on the other hand, felt more and more uncomfortable as time dragged on.

Food was served, drinks poured, people danced, and more drinks poured. As the night moved on, Tal who stayed away from the drinks, continuously kept vigil on the councilman. If Wo Han left the room, he was going to follow him. But in the end he didn't need to wait to follow the man...he was invited into his office. But him and Korra were asked by an aide of his to meet him in his office.

The two Avatars were led to his office where Wo Han sat behind his desk. He was still in his costume but had removed his mask. He asked them to take a seat at the desk. "You two probably are wondering why I asked you to come here?" He asked as they both gave him death stares. "This party is really nothing more than a way for us three to be here and not attract too much attention." They responded with continuing their glares. "I brought you here to make a deal." More glaring from the Avatars.

Tal was the first to reply. "What kind of a deal?" he snarled as he doubted that Wo Han was going to make a deal with him and Korra.

"I've bought the shares of the patent for those weapons used by the Equalists during the attack at the arena. I beat out Cabbage Corb. for the patent and I'm planning to use my capital to start up a new company." They just looked at him mild expressions of surprise. "This company, if I can get your approval, will sell these weapons to the United Republic military to arm their non-benders."

"You want to supply thousands of these deadly weapons to the largest military in the world?" Korra scorned. "You saw the damage those things can do. Arming our warriors with them would only open the way for another war."

"But war might not break out at all Avatar Korra." Wo Han spoke back. "No one would surely try to start a war when there is now _two_ Avatars on this world. You are a master of all four elements and Avatar Tal here is already a master of two elements, and a expert at non-bender combat. I only want to supply our non-bender troops with a way to fight alongside their bender counter parts in case there was another Equalist rebellion."

Tal knew that he couldn't counter that reply, and Korra sure wasn't going to be able to either. In fact, if it was to go before the entire council to allow the mass production of these weapons, nobody would be able to vote no. Everyone would be to scare to do so, because they would be labeled as pro-bending and not caring for the nonbenders. Wo Han had them in his grasp, then why did he need to meet with them in secret about this?

"Then why did you need to spend so much to host a party to hide a meeting with us?" Korra asked him sternly. She wasn't going to play this game either. "What's so important that you had to meet with us in such secrecy?"

"There are some _issues _that would need to be addressed first." The councilman was quick to respond. "If I was to convince His Excellency the Earth King that Tree Line be made a independent city, I would put a factory there." He watched as Tal couldn't help but smile at that. The young Avatar would do almost anything to bring back that town of his. "I will own the factory, but the workers will be the nonbenders that immigrate to Tree Line."

"Why does the Earth King need to made the city independent?" Tal asked him. "Would this make those damn treaties revenant? Will Tree Line then be offered aid by the United Republic of Nations?" He tried to remember what he knew about the ruler, only however bringing up blanks, The current Earth King had only gained the throne only a few months before the massacre at Tree Line. And no news ever came out about what he was like. He was a figure that almost never appeared in public.

"Yes Avatar Tal," he answered. "I am a very close confidant to the Earth King. All I would need to do is tell him how the town is not economically beneficial to him and how much you want the town rebuilt." He leaned forward in his seat. "But I think that you need to do something for me if I'm going to consider talking to the Earth King."

Tal was suddenly awestruck. Wo Han had turned against him again. He was asking him to do something in exchange for another. Only a minute before, the man seemed more than willing to fix the issue without such a trade, only a deal to bring in a factory. He asked confused, "What do you think is so important for me to do that you would ask such a thing?"

Wo Han chuckled a bit. "If I was to suggest that to the Earth King alone by myself, he would have me executed right there on the spot!" He pointed a finger at Tal. "You would have to do it with me. Only with the support of the Avatars would he possibly consider it. This Earth King is very different that his grandfather who made peace with Fire Lord Zuko." The man needed their help to get it done. If he went to Ba Sing Se alone, he would be branded a traitor.

Korra, who had been silent during this, suddenly spoke up. "We can't just do that Councilman Wo Han. The Earth King would never allow any more land to be taken from the Earth Kingdom." It was a delicate subject. It had been almost a century since the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom almost went to war. Only a few years after the end of the Hundred Year War. Avatar Aang managed to stop stopped it.

"That is why we are meeting here in secret, Avatar Korra," Wo Han said. "Contrary to what the Earth King might believe, the Earth Kingdom is very unstable. The confederation of smaller kingdoms that make up the Earth Kingdom as a whole are in fact quite upset about how his majesty is running the kingdom...they want equality, or they will demand independence."

He leaned back in his chair and looked right into their eyes. "Even if it means war."

The mere mentioning of the word war made the hair on Tals' neck stand on end. Could this be the war he had been warned about by Madame Wei? He wanted to stop it from even starting. Then the fortune would not happen and then he and Katara could have a better life together than what was foretold. "Any way we could prevent a war from breaking out?"

The councilman smiled at the question. He already had an answer. "You and the leaders of the other kingdoms would need to confront the Earth King himself in Ba Sing Se." He got out of his seat and walked over to a nearby portrait of the Earth King which was hanging on the wall. "Only when he sees that there is no other option other than a civil war will he finally change and rule more fairly." He glanced back at them as he angrily pointed a finger at the picture. "That man has allies only because he has political power and gives more funds from taxes to them: the leaders of Ba Sing Se, Omashu, Gaoling, Makapu, and Yu Dao."

Tal couldn't argue with him there. Korra was about to question Wo Han's accusation but he cut her off. "It's all true." He told her. "Those towns and regions get more money in taxes than what they give up. My parents complained about it all the time before they were killed. Tree Line gave up so much in taxes, but every year we were given barely enough to help maintain the town. We gave the majority of our lumber to the capital and never saw anything come back for it" He was beginning to get mad at this memory.

Korra was dumbstruck but then Wo Han threw more daggers at them. "And the sandbenders in the Shi Wong Desert give up almost all their oil. The Foggy Swamp must give up so much of their already limited fish supply annually. Not to mention all the towns that give up so much of their harvests to the capital."

Korra was getting upset as such news herself now. How could she have only heard about all this just Now? She was an Avatar, she was suppose to help solve issues like these. The Earth Kingdom was burdening its poor to help line the pockets of its more wealthy citizens. People like Wo Han. "Councilman Wo Han." She sneered as she got up from her chair and faced him. "Aren't you one of these people you just accused of benefitting from the poor?" She threw her arms into the air. "You seem pretty well off here! Don't you get all your wealth form Ba Sing Se?"

He had been ready for this accusation so his reply was flawless. "No Avatar Korra, I do not." He walked across the office to a large map that took up most of one wall. "You see, I'm originally a businessman. Before the Earth King made the bad judgment of appointing me as representative for the nonbenders of the Earth Kingdom, I ran over a dozen businesses around the world." He pointed at certain points on the map and listed off a list of them. He ran them when he wasn't busy with council work. "In truth, I'm paid much less from Ba Sing Se as you might otherwise think." His immense wealth was not from taxes.

Korra had to take that excuse at face value. "Fine, then what do you suppose we do?"

"I want Avatar Tal to come along with me and the other leaders. You will unfortunately need to stay here Avatar Korra." Wo Han told her. "Although you are an Avatar, the Earth King does not really like you because of how you are on friendly terms with Fire Lord Iroh and the rest of the Untied Republic. Avatar Tal is from our nation and therefore will have a better chance in solving the matter."

Tal was in a place that he did not want to be. He was going to have to defy a leader that he was suppose to follow as a citizen of the Earth Kingdom. It would be considered treason to confront the man. However, he was an Avatar, and therefore had the sacred duty to all the people of the world to help when he was needed. He could not be loyal to only one nation. He knew that war was possible and with the fortune which was told to him only earlier that day, would most likely happen.

Tal wanted peace, even if he wasn't an Avatar. He just wanted his life to return to like it was before the massacre. The only exception being that life was now soon going to include Katara. He wanted a family with her, and a war is now a thing he wanted his future children to live through. He closed his eyes and thought carefully for a few seconds. Knowing full well that his decision was not going to be like by many of those close to him.

"I'll help."

* * *

**Well, that's interesting! I guess being a history major make me a bit more able to come up with idea on stuff to write about without using material from other writers stories. No high school drama stories here!**

**Otherwise, I want to keep thanking those who continue to read my story. If anyone favs, or leaves me reviews, I really like that. I love it when I get emails telling me someone faved it or left a review, especially after 41 chapters now! **


	42. The Path to War

**Well...sorry for the wait, but I finally managed to get the time to write another chapter. It took longer because I had school, work, military, and then some writer's block. I had trouble figuring out how to move into my next part I had planned for a few months now.**

**For a heads up...I got some dialogue in here and I'm not the best at writing it properly. And I also change the scene or time a few times in this too.**

* * *

Chapter 42: The Path to War

As soon as Tal had agreed to help, the meeting was over and Wo Han allowed them to go back to the party. As soon as the two Avatars had exited the councilman's office, Mako and Katara met them. Korra almost dragged Mako out to a terrace to talk in private. Tal on the other hand went with Katara back into the main room. She was already pestering him for details. He had to tell her to wait until the party was over. He told her he needed to think and wanted to just be with her. He also knew that Korra and Mako were already trying to figure out how to take care of the issue without going to war. Korra was the diplomat Avatar, Tal was only the student Avatar.

The rest of the evening was pleasant. Tal and Katara danced many times, giving off the appearance that everything was fine. Mako and Korra soon did the same and danced as well. It ended well into morning and all the guests were returned to their home via Wo Han's fleet of Satolimos. Tal still refused to tell Katara what had happened in the office, but when they had gotten on the ferry, he let told her.

"I don't believe it!" she exclaimed in anger."How could you agree to do that Tal?!"

"I've told you long ago about how bad it was!" he yelled at her. "We were taxed all the time and life was rough. This was why Equalist sympathies are much stronger up in the Northern Earth Kingdom! Nonbenders were taxed even more than benders, and my family had to pretend to be a nonbender family!"

"Yes Tal!" Katara yelled back as she refused to accept a hug from him he was offering. "You did tell me! But you are willing to go to war!" She was beginning to tear up. "Don't you remember what we were told yesterday at the fair! Madame Wei said you would start a war!" She pushed him back hard as he tried to calm her. "You promised me that you would do whatever it takes to prevent any war at all!" She pushed him hard again. "You lied to me!"

Korra and Mako could only look on in distress as Tal suddenly got defensive too. "I lied to you?!" He yelled loudly at her. "How was I supposed to know that half of the Earth Kingdom wants to break away!"

"You're the Avatar Tal!", she screamed at him as she continued to cry harder. "You're supposed to stop wars!...Not start them!"

"I'm also supposed to help people if they are being oppressed Katara! And it appears that a lot of people are being oppressed right now!...I have to help!"

Katara stopped yelling at him but she continued to cry. The makeup of her costume was beginning to run off her face. "We were told that war would break out. You would stop that war only to have it break out again." She sobbed for a bit before she could speak again. "She said that the war would end only when you did something that was the last thing you would do." She had translated the fortune to mean Tal would have to die to end the war.

Tal however had enough of this drama. Only he would soon cause more. "I know that Katara! But I'm an Avatar! It's my duty to help...even it might kill me!"

"But war Tal?" she begged as her tears had completely ruined her costume's makeup and made her face look like she was a whole other woman. "How are you going to stop this without going to war?" Her defensive posture had finally fallen and she ran to him who hugged her tightly. "I love you...I don't want to lose you." Her parents breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this. They had feared that this argument might have resulted in them breaking up.

Tal kept hugging her. He already had a plan. He could only hope Korra would agree to it and help him get the support he needed for his plan to work. "I'm not going to start a war." It was true, he had a much bigger plan. War would not unite people, it would only tear them apart. Their only enemy show be the Earth King, not each other. "I'm going to stop a war before one can even break out." He could see the worry in her eyes when she looked up at him, trying to understand what he had just said.

* * *

Now a month after the party, Air Temple Island had become the same old training grounds for the Tree Line Three probending team yet again. The only difference this time, Kay, being the one sister who understood tactics better, was the captain as Tal decided to not stay on the team as captain. Markov, Tal's old friend from the town was recruited to fill in his spot.

Katara decided to no longer be the captain of the Fire Ferrets as well. Hiroshi took over the team his father and uncle had started and now he had to fill in two spots. They were still in the search for a firebender as Ru retired as well to run his family's still expanding tea shop franchise. And now he needed to find a waterbender. It was just like it when his dad, Bolin, had to do the same almost 20 years earlier after Korra and Mako quit the team.

Tal and Katara today, watched as Markov was drilled in attacks. The young Avatar however, was not interested in watching his friend dodge his twin sisters' attacks, he was busy going over blueprint of Tree Line. The next day was going to be the first anniversary of the Tree Line Massacre. Another meeting with Wo Han, and he was able to wrangle some funds from the councilman to help the town's rehabitation. All Tal had to do was be very public about how treaties stopped more funds from coming in and how the Earth Kingdom had been over taxing most of its outer regions. As for now, Tal's plan had been the same as Wo Han's...get the public to notice.

The problem Tal now faced was the next phase. This is where their plans differed greatly. Wo Han wanted him and the other leaders of the burdened regions to go straight to Ba Sing Se and confront the Earth King directly. Tal's plan called for the outcry in the regions and the rest of the Earth Kingdom to swell up enough until the Earth King had no choice but to stop the taxes.

Tal had the gears in his plan begin to spin, but slowly. Korra, although very uninterested in his plan at first, reluctantly agreed only when Tal had spent the whole afternoon after the party explaining it. She had a few conditions before she agreed, one being that Wo Han was to not know of this idea at all. That was easy for Tal to agree to, as his plan made sure that the councilman was left in the dark.

Right now, the plan was working and money was flowing into the rebuilding project. Independent grants from wealthy donors, so of them those who Tal had called out as being ones who profited from Tree Line's over taxation. Other smaller gifts from other rich people. Some anonymous donations and others from charities and even gifts from schools. The town now had just enough to begin accepting people who wanted to relocate to it. It would be slow at first but Tal was sure that more funds would make their way to help his home town.

He was naming off places on the blueprint to Katara. He wanted her to fall in love with the place and it's interesting geography. The grid pattern of streets that laid directly on latitude and longitude lines. The main part of town built on an island at the mouth of the Wolfbat River. He had been pointing out the location of a popular restaurant where couples always went to her when Markov's yells broke him away from his reminiscing. His old friend had yet again found out that he was out matched by the twin girls on his team. When Tal and Katara looked over to the training ring, Markov was lying on the ground panting from being sent clear off his feet by a fire blast from Tai.

The chances the Tree Line Three repeated as champs was now very slim. Markov was a able earthbender, but nowhere as good as his Avatar friend. "Markov!" Tal shouted jokingly to his friend. "You need to remember that _you_ are the _rookie_ here!"

Even Katara got in on the joking. "Yes Markov! Just think what Yue will think when she comes back from the city this afternoon and you are covered in burns and drenched!"

Markov was slow to get back on his feet, but as quick as ever to send a snide remark right back. "Yeah, well tell that to the two queens of carnage over there!" He smacked his practice suit to try and beat off some of the soot left by Tai. "Is it just me, or are you two being a lot more aggressive today?" He called out to his new teammates. "Is it that time of the month again?"

Tal left out a laugh at the remark, but was punched in the arm by Katara who sent a rather vicious smirk at him. The three girls somehow managed to get that thing to happen to them all on the same day, but today was not that day, and Tal was thankful for that. Markov got his just desserts when Tay made a large jar of water nearby fall on top of him. "Fine," he answered as he got up defeated, "I'll never ask that again." Tal could see that the upcoming season was going to be a long painful one to watch from the sidelines. Katara felt the same too. Both teams were going to have rough seasons.

After the three probenders returned to their practice, Katara and Tal kept silent as they continued to study the map of Tree Line. Suddenly, out of the blue, Katara asked him something, "Do you wish that we were still probenders?"

Tal had been studying the map and had to look up to see his fiancé's face. "Sometimes...but not always."

Katara was puzzled by his answer. "Not always?...I though you loved it like I did."

"I loved it sweetheart, but it was tiring. I not only had to almost every day for it, but those afternoons learning how to be an Avatar from your mom wasn't exactly easy." He watched as that thought sunk into her and she understood why he was happy to leave he probending ring.

"What if your home hadn't been destroyed? Would you and your sisters have eventually try and come here and form a team?" After having known him for a year now, Katara was surprised to find herself asking him this. She had never asked this before, mainly out of fear of upsetting him by reminding him of his former home.

Tal was silent after that...he had never thought about that before. It had now been just about a year since he and his sisters had left their home up north. To him, the idea to move to Republic City was simply to make a living by being probenders. But until the day he airbended in Tahno's ship, he never knew he was an Avatar. Just an average earthbender who miraculously firebended once.

Now, he was living quite well because of who he was. A year ago, he was just a teenage boy up in Tree Line named Tal. But he had to be called Mal outside of his home. Even then he had to live a lie. He was a bender living as a nonbender. But now, he was _Avatar Tal_, he was going to help bring peace and justice to the world.

Within one year it had all changed. He had mastered two elements, earth and fire. And he had stopped one major attack, and the Equalists haven't been heard from since. After his display of immense power, one would have to be crazy to want to go against him. And had had done probending alongside his Avatar training with Korra. He was lucky to have her as a teacher, all Avatars before him including Korra did not have another Avatar to personally teach them everything. They all had to find individual masters in each element to teach them it one at a time.

And then there was Katara, Tal couldn't think of a life now without her in it. He had a few nightmares about what would have happened if he and Katara had never begun their relationship. One of them even happen while they were relaxing on the couch back at the apartment. Katara woke up from a rather pleasant nap when Tal began to toss and turn rather violently. He told her that it was where they became rivals in probending and never couldn't stand to be near one another. Just like it was back for Korra and Tahno.

Tal finally answered her question, "We might have. But I'd rather just think about the life we're going to have together." He kissed her on the cheek.

She returned the gesture the same. "I like that idea sweetie..but our old teams still look like they are going to have losing seasons."

"That's why I'm working so hard on my plan my love," he told her as they heard Markov yell again as he was tripped by one of Tay's water whips. "Because I don't want to be around to see Markov get his rear end handed to him time and time again." She giggled at the remark.

* * *

While the Avatar and his family and friends practiced, one the other side of the world, in the Fire Nation, things were beginning to brew. At one of the United Republic military bases, certain soldiers were being taken from their commands. No one really knew why.

One of the men taken was Sergeant Dmitry Patramanov, a non-bender who hailed from Wolfbat Falls. He wasn't part of the last Equalist conspiracy. He had left the town almost 5 years before to join the United Republic of Nations Army. He had a good record, a superb fitness score, a high intelligence score. However, he was unable to get promoted anymore much due to him being a bit of an unorthodox soldier. He was surprised that he hadn't been demoted after that last recent fight with a firebender Sergeant in his unit.

Patramanov had a lot of time to think about that fight. He had been thrown in the base's brig for the last week. Then he was released and given orders to report to the intelligence building on base. He had never been in it and he had to go in wearing the one set of his dress uniforms. When he did finally report in, he was ushered into a waiting room filled with a half a dozen more soldiers, all under similar orders.

This was when he begin to really wonder why they were all here. He recognized some as soldiers with rather _colorful_ records. He also noticed that there were both benders and nonbenders. Something was up, he knew it and so did everyone else in that room. He sat down and waited while one by one, each man was called to go into a nearby room. No one exited, but it would take only about ten or so minutes before another would be called to go in.

When he was called an hour later, Patramanov went in. He opened the door and found a colonel at the head of a conference table, Colonel Juag. The Sergeant snapped to attention and saluted as was protocol. The Colonel returned the salute and told Patramanov to take a seat at the foot of the table.

"As with everyone else who was called here," Colonel Juag spoke, "I'm guessing that you are wondering why you are here Sergeant Patramanov."

The lowly enlisted man was hesitant to speak at first but quickly regained the courage to speak. "Yes Colonel...I'm a bit confused as to why I'm here...and not still in the brig."

"You are here not because of that little fight Sergeant. Your are here because you are a good soldier. A good enough soldier to be considered for...a special assignment."

"Special assignment, sir?"

"Yes," Juag answered. "Everyone we have been interviewing today is being looked at for this assignment. We did have to reject some of our candidates already, and two have asked to not be accepted because it might affect their wives and children."

"Why would that be necessary, sir?"

"Because Sergeant Patramanov, anyone who is invited and accepts...will need to relocated to our new base being constructed up in Tree Line." The Colonel said with a smile. "You are from the area originally, aren't you? I have reports here that say you have quite a knowledge of chi-blocking. How are you with handling cold weather?"

Patramanov was confused by the question. "I could handle the cold sir...as long as I got at least one good jacket and a good pair of boots and gloves."

The Colonel chuckled at the statement. "Okay...now how about your feelings about the Avatar and you home region? It has become public knowledge that the region does not like being taxed so much."

"I lived in Wolfbat Falls sir, we weren't taxed as badly as Tree Line. But if I'm allowed to speak freely, I'm not exactly happy about how my people have been treated by the Earth King." He wasn't ashamed to say it. He was a member of the United Republic of Nations, not a subject solely loyal to the Earth Kingdom.

"Well...Avatars Korra and Tal share the same feelings, Sergeant. They want to change that and need men that can help...you could be one of those men."

"Well sir..." Patramanov stated. "You got my interest. Truthfully speaking...I'm sick of being stuck here in the Fire Nation on bases during training exercise after training exercise, only to not be sent to fight anywhere to fight Equalists."

This little statement make the Colonel smile and chuckle again. He got out of his seat and Patramanov followed suit out of military etiquette. The Colonel walked over to him. "Then I guess you are accepting the invitation...cause you sure do make my cut. I would also like to give you a little gift since you are one of our best nonbender soldiers." He offered a outstretched hand. "Welcome to the United Republic Special Forces...Lieutenant Patramanov."

The man the Colonel was shaking hands with was dumbstruck for a second. He was being made a commissioned officer. Not only was he finally getting off this forsaken base, he was being promoted."...Ah...Thank you sir?"

"That's right...you're an officer now. But don't worry...just be your normal self up there. Avatar Tal personally asked for soldiers who think outside the box...and you do nothing but that."

"Do you have any idea as to what we will be doing up there with the Avatars, sir?"

"I honestly don't have a clue what you are going to be up to in Tree Line, Lieutenant. But I'm going to assume, based off what I know about Avatar Tal, is that you should never think twice about what he orders you to do. He's an Avatar and he's known for coming up with plans that are quite unorthodox." With the conversation over. The newly commissioned Lieutenant Patramanov saluted the Colonel and left. Things were going to start becoming more interesting in his life.

Phase two of Tal's plan was complete.

* * *

**Well there you go...another chapter down in the book. **

**Please...as always fav or follow this to show me that people actually like this story.**

**Reviews will be as always accepted.**


	43. The Spirits

**I finally managed to write another chapter. The fluff chapters are done for awhile, now is a bunch of action chapters.**

* * *

Chapter 43: The Spirits

In one of Republic City's old industrial districts was an old abandoned warehouse that many believed had gone unused for over a decade. However, if one were to have spent a month's worth of nights there a year before, they would have seen three teenagers practicing their bending in secret. No one would have known it back then, but they would have been looking at the next champion team of probenders. And they would have been the first people in Republic City to have seen the new Avatar...Tal.

In the week since his acceptance to join the U.R.S.F. and his promotion, Lieutenant Patramanov had packed up all of his few belongings and taken a military cargo plane to Republic City. It wasn't just him, another two men also took the trip with him..his new comrades. Patramanov was the sole nonbender of the group, Lieutenant Kachaka hailed from the North Pole and was an expert waterbender. The other man was Lieutenant Fierre, a firebender from the Fire Nation Capital City who Patramanov knew had a knack for insubordination.

All three men were now officers and now had been housed in temporary quarters in an old but still used apartment complex near the harbor. They all noticed while they moved into their own private rooms, that at least a dozen more men were doing the same thing. Patramanov, who had never been to the capital, was going to go out and explore the city. But no sooner than he had opened the front door to the apartment complex, he was stopped by a tall mean looking firebender in a police uniform.

If Patramanov had known the rank insignia of the Republic City Police Department, he would have known he had bumped into the Chief of Police...Mako. "You going somewhere Lieutenant?"

Patramanov, had a bit of a colorful past with police, especially Military Police. But he had just run into Chief Mako. "Just wanted to go out and explore a bit officer," he replied.

Mako spoke again, "First off...I'm Chief Mako. Second...you'll get your chance to explore right now, but only where me and my men take you all."

The experienced soldier didn't know it but he was soon being lead outside by two uniformed Republic City cops with the others in tow. They were asked to get in a police van for transporting prisoners. When all the men were inside, the door was shut and they could hear the lock being bolted. The van's engine started and they felt it begin moving. Within five minutes, they had moved a few blocks and entered an old warehouse. They knew this because of the small window that was on the door. Soon, the door was then opened, but the soldiers were wary to exit the van. They did not know what was going on. Mako walked up to the door and asked them nicely to get out. They did so only to find themselves in a massive empty darkened room.

Only a few of the warehouse's ceiling lights had been turned on. It was dark in many parts of the room but where they were was well lit. It was only the dozen soldiers and a dozen cops. Something was up...and that made Lieutenant Fierre uneasy. He got mad when he felt uneasy. "What the heck is going on here?!" He asked loudly. "I thought we were to help the Avatars."

A voice spoke from a nearby shadow. "Yes Lieutenant...you are indeed here to help the Avatars." The voice was from a woman, seconds later a light was turned on to show Korra sitting in a chair all lady like in pose and dressed her usual everyday work clothes. It was not one of her outfits she wore to council meetings or at public events, this outfit was made for more function and to allow her to use her bending more easily. Patramanov had seen pictures of her before and knew that although she was now in her forties, a whole ten years his senior, she was still stunning to look at. Mako was only lucky guy. Many of the others had the same thought.

Another voice spoke out from the shadows from other side of the group, directly opposite of where Korra was. It was the voice of a young man, "We just thought it would be a good idea to demonstrate the great need for secrecy." When everyone was looking over in that direction, another light suddenly turned on, almost as if on cue, to reveal a hooded figure.

Korra spoke when she saw that everyone could not recognize the hooded person. She then remembered that none of the soldiers had never really seen Tal in person or even in pictures with him wearing his hood. "Gentlemen," she spoke with poise and all lady like. She pointed her arm gracefully at the mysterious figure. "My student, fellow Avatar... and future son-in-law...Avatar Tal."

Tal, now having been introduced, removed his hood to reveal his face. It would have made it much more easier to recognized him without it but his real face was still covered...in war paint. One side was painted to look like a skull, the other side painted with the traditional war paint of the long dead native peoples of the Northern Earth Kingdom. Although the men had heard stories about Tal and his abilities, someone without any previous knowledge about him would know just from his appearance that Tal was a warrior of the highest caliper.

Patramanov knew from stories printed in the local newspaper on his old base that Tal was a expert fighter, both with and without bending. The young Avatar might be only a teenager, but he was still the Avatar. Both he and Tal hailed from the same region so he thought that he should introduce himself to him. Everyone else watched as the soldier walked right up to Tal and offered his outstretched hand in greeting. Half of his mind thought he was going to be attacked by the teen. Many of the others in the room thought the same as well. But surprisingly, Tal took the offered hand happily and shook it.

Tal went and greeted the other men and made some small talk amongst them as they waited for a truck to enter the warehouse. Mako opened the door to reveal Skoochy who was checking a clipboard. "I got everything you asked right here Chief." Skoochy said as he got out of the truck's cab and handed Mako the list of items he had requested. "Uniforms, gear, civilian clothing, and ...some of those new weapons from Equa-Tech." He handed Mako one of the new smaller handguns for inspection. "Everything was paid for by the U.R. military...the weapons were _a gift_ to the Fire Nation from Councilman Wo Han."

Mako looked down at the new smaller weapon. It was a upgrade in technology from ones used at the Equalist attack last winter. No longer were they the inaccurate muzzle loaded types. Now the objects it shot out were cased in brass cartridges and then put around a revolving cylinder. A hammer like device in the back moved when the trigger was pulled to fire the weapon.

Wo Han's Equa-Tech, a massive company that produced many household items and anything that made life easier, was the company that bought the patent for the weapons. They made stuff for cooking, cleaning, schooling, books, and now even weapons. Wo Han named it Equa-Tech because it produced technology that made life equal. It had existed well before even the Equalists had first appeared decades before. As far as anyone knew, Wo Han had never been part of the Equalists or had any sympathies towards them. The Chief of Police knew that Wo Han was just a corrupt businessman-turned-politician.

For the next few hours, the men were issued sets of gear in their required sizes while Mako and Korra watched as Tal told the men what they were going to be doing. Tal slowly paced himself in circles as the men were given their gear. The Earth King, or anyone of political power from the Earth Kingdom, had yet to answer the accusations of suppressing their lesser off regions. However, public outcry from those regions and even from all around the world had increased greatly. Recently, small groups of separatist factions had secretly written to the Avatars, asking to help make a case for independence. The soldiers would be staying in the capital for a month or two receiving secret training in conducting covert operations. Then they would be sent out in small teams to meet with these factions and see if the people really want independence from the Earth Kingdom had other plans.

There were multiple groups in earth of the main disputed regions. The biggest issue was that a few of these groups were more rebellious than anticipated and were begging Tal and Korra to actually wage war with them. This issue was the most prevalent in the Shi Wong Desert. One group to come forward asking for help was one of the main tribes of the Sandbenders, the native people of the region. Another main tribe also came forward, but wrote that the other tribe was only using the situation as a way to capture more power for themselves. A civil war could break out if the Avatars chose the wrong side.

When their training was complete in Republic City, the soldiers would go out to meet with each of these two tribes. The one determined to have worthier cause would then have its people trained in the same tactics taught to the soldiers. While all this happened, Korra had to stay put in the capital and continue to look for a peaceful resolution to the situation. Tal would stay in the city as well continue his very slow progression in mastering Airbending. But if the situation called for it, he would go out and help the troops.

Secrecy was still the main issue. None could be captured and no one could let it get out that the United Republic of Nations was planning to possibly fight a war against one of its members. Councilman Wo Han called it a different name than fighting a war, he called it more of a _Police Action_. If violence did break out , the U.R. military would use that idea as a way to justify going into the Earth Kingdom and acting a peacekeepers. Korra didn't like it, but knew it would probably be enough to keep the public on their side.

In one desperate act to prevent any more violence, Korra herself wrote a long hand written letter addressed directly to the Earth King himself. She wrote that he had to stop the subjugation of his far flung regions or she would personally intervene, just like Avatar Kyoshi herself had done over 300 years prior. She would call for him to step down from power, or give independence to the regions. It had been sent weeks ago and she still waited for an answer. She knew that it would take forever. Ba Sing Se was just one big bureaucracy, there was so much red tape to get by. Not even a letter from the Avatar could get to the Earth King's possession until it had been clear through multiple levels of departments. This was another issue the people in the Earth Kingdom were now openly voicing against their rule...he was never seen or heard from. It was just like 100 years before.

The Earth King was viewed as a deity, and seldom ever ruled. This practiced was stopped by the 52nd Earth King, Kuei. Avatar Aang showed him that his subordinates were corrupt. After the end of the 100 Year Warm Kuei ruled more like the king he was supposed to be. His son, and his son, and his son, did so the same. But this latest king went back to the old system. Tal's plan would be put into action if the U.R. relations with the Earth Kingdom broke down into fighting.

Each soldier, knowing that secrecy as key to mission success, were told by Mako that traitors would be dealt with severely. He pointed to Tal who flashed a grin and moved his finger across his neck. Tal would exterminate any traitor. They each personally had reasons to not like the Earth King and were willing to do what was necessary to keep peace. When the orientation was done, the soldiers were much less hostile when told to get back in the police van. Their new bags containing their gear were put inside with them and made the trip back to their apartment complex a bit more crowded. Their little unit even had been given a nice name..._The Spirits_.

Unbeknownst to anyone in Republic City, the Earth King had in fact received Korra's letter. A week after she had written it, it was personally delivered to the Earth King by the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se. It was late in the evening, and he was busying himself being adored by his guests at a royal party. Hundreds of well dress Earth Kingdom nobles were at the event, all of them trying to gain the attention of their ruler.

As for the king himself, the evening full of food, music and drink was rather boring. He didn't become king by throwing great parties. He had done it by beating out his five brothers who were all trying to do the same thing, become the next king after their father. He had the disadvantage of being the youngest, but he turned out to be the most clever. Over his entire childhood and teenage years, he plotted the removal of his brothers. Each one taken out of the running for the next king was a game of deception and espionage.

One was too dumb in his schooling and their father had him banished to the Foggy Bottom Swamp...killed by catgators. Another was a bit of a ladies' man and only a well time photo of him in bed with various young women took him out of the running and banished to the desert...killed by buzzardwasps. One liked Satomobiles too much for his own good, a well placed bomb took him out. Another was sent to join the Earth Kingdom military after he was found to be _plotting against his brothers_, a faked letter from a government official sealed the deal. He died of exposure when sent to desert to see how his brother was faring. The last brother was the hardest, he knew his last remaining brother was the plotter. He was taken care of by the Dai Li...on the king's personal orders for _the attempted assassination the Earth King and the other crown prince_. With the rest taken out of contention, he was placed under strict security by his father until he died of old age. No one but the King and a very select few government officials and some military generals knew of the plot. But they knew that coming out with that information would most certainly main their immediate execution, along with the executions of their families.

With the party boring him, the Earth King was almost happy that he was asked to leave the grand hall and return to the throne room to have a sudden emergency meeting with Grand Secretariat Tran Gao. When he entered the room, Gao gave his customary bow and greeting. The king sat down on his throne and asked the man somewhat angrily as to why he had to leave the party. He was answered when Gao handed him a letter...a letter from Avatar Korra.

He already knew what it was probably going to be about, but when he read it, he was surprised that the aging Korra would resort to such actions if he didn't treat certain Earth Kingdom subjects more _fairly_. Although he knew of his ancestor's run in with Avatar Kyoshi, he was more determined to rule _his kingdom his way_, and not the way some '_aging stuck up Water Tribe hag from some pheasant village near the South Pole.'_

Gao, being a trusted advisor, warned his ruler about the possibility of Avatar Tal being sent to enforce a chance in policy. The king, didn't believe he had to worry about the young Avatar. He was the ruler of the largest military force in the world. Even if the U.R. took all of the earthbenders the Earth Kingdom loaned to them, his army would still have a 5-to-1 edge. He had a nearly inexhaustible treasury to supply his military, the U.R. had a very limited one.

If the United Republic was going to go against its most powerful member...then they had better be ready for a fight. He gave Gao only two orders after that. One was to recall all his loaned troops, and mobilize the rest to be deployed to occupy the disputed regions. The other order, was to send a letter to the Avatars that war was his answer.

* * *

**Well, that is finally out of the way. Now I got t write a bunch of action chapters. **

**Even though I haven't updated recently, I see that there are still a few people still finding this story for the first time and reading it. My story might not be as popular as some of those that are mostly romantic fluff that everyone seems to write here, but it seems to still attract new readers.**

**And as always, thankyou to those who follow or fav all of this, and even more thankyous to anyone who leaves a review. **


	44. It Hits The Fans

**Unfortunately for everyone, I'll need to take a short break from this story. I'll be in California getting baked alive in the desert for the next two weeks due to military training. This also means no phone or internet as well, unless I really can find any free time. Because of this I tried to write one one chapter to keep readers happy. This is a nice filler chapter to speed up time in the story. For fans of the Avatar universe, things get shaken up.**

* * *

Chapter 44: It Hits The Fans

After seeing the newspaper headlines in Republic City during the late part of spring and the beginning of summer, one could say that things went south really quickly. A week before the opening of the Probending season, half of the teams of the World Division were temporary folded from the league. They were the teams hailing from the former member state of the United Republic of Nations...the Earth Kingdom. Only teams from the disputed regions were allowed to stay, their seasons now having multiple rematches against other teams in their division, instead of only two.

Days before, news of multiple divisions of Earth Kingdom mobilizing reached the capital. This lead to the breakdown of communication between Republic City and Ba Sing Se. Thousands of military personnel from the Earth Kingdom were recalled from the U.R. military, only a few hundred refused the order and stayed loyal to their comrades. The price of many goods from the Earth Kingdom rose sharply within days and resulted in shortages.

Korra tried to go to see the Earth King in a final attempt to keep peace in tact but they refused to let her even pass the legendary outer walls of the massive city. It was quite scary for her and Jinora to be suddenly flanked by two biplanes with Earth Kingdom insignia on them while the two women rode on only a sky bison from Republic City. Jinora, using her diplomatic immunity from her people's strict neutrality stance, tried to gain access alone, but they flat out refused her as well.

As for Tal, as soon as word of troops being called back reached his ears, he spent as much time training with _The Spirits_ as Katara would allow him. Their plan to train in the city for 3 months turned into a sped up crash course compressed into a sole month's span. It was a good thing the soldiers he was training along side had some familiarity with Equalist fighting, they progressed quickly through what was believe to be the slowest part of the training plan.

When he wasn't training with them, he was either trying to spend time with Katara, or speaking with the news, trying to make the point that the disputed regions should have equal rights as the rest of the Earth Kingdom, or they should be given full independence. When asked about how the regions would be represented in the Ruling Council, he told them that each area should be allowed separate representation on the council. He even wanted to rename his home region from the Northern Earth Kingdom...to The Northern Republic.

When word of Earth Kingdom troops nearing the Shi Wong Desert reached him, he sent a third of his men there and another third to the Foggy Bottom Swamp. The army headed for the swamp region was only a week behind their counterparts heading to the mining and oil rich desert region. As for him and the others, they would go and stop the army heading for the northern region at the one vital choke point on their route...Wolfbat Pass. The pass was the sole mountain pass leading from Ba Sing Se to the northern region. The region's borders were considered the u-shaped chain of formidable mountains that encircled the region on three sides, effectively cutting them off from the rest of the Earth Kingdom.

If they stopped the invading army at the pass, they could not occupy the region. The only other way, other than a airborne invasion, would be to take the sea route and go dangerously near the still U.R.-allied Northern Water Tribe. Tal Left the capital only after promising Katara that he would be safe. After a long sad goodbye to his sisters, fiancé, and friends, he and his attached group of soldiers left by airship to Wolfbat Pass.

With Tal gone, Katara really had nothing better to do other than a few things. She could go workout, babysit her little brothers or the airbender children, hang out with her very few friends, or what was once her favorite activity when Tal was around...plan their wedding. It was less than a week before she completely abandoned her plans for her own wedding. It was planned for late next spring, so she put everything on the side for now. Instead, she concentrated on her waterbending training. She still wasn't a master, but she was close. The only issue really was when her mother could find time to test her. Korra was almost always at the Ruling Council's meeting hall, spending only her evenings and nights back home on Air Temple Island.

Due to this problem, Katara found herself becoming bored during training very quickly. She did have company with Tay who was training alongside her but she was still farther behind in mastering water than Katara was. Her little brother Sokka was still way too young for her to teach any more advanced techniques. She was really wishing she could be back on the Fire Ferrets again. Hiroshi and his two new teammates were okay but they had a losing record a month into the season. The Tree Ling Three were around the same record, but only after going winless for three straight weeks. Markov was still not adjusting well to the ring, most opponents strategies were to get to him first and then go after Tal's sisters.

It was a another month before Tal finally managed to send a message to her. The letter was long, he clearly had postponed it many times, but tried to make up for it by writing a long letter to make her feel better. It even came with some pictures of him and his small team of soldiers, one of them brought along a camera to catch the fighting in action. Most of the pictures sent were of him and the others trying to relax when not having to stop another assault on the pass from the invading army. Katara could see that Tal was beginning to grow a beard now, along with his now much longer hair. She always made him shave back in the city, but he was now miles away, and probably not caring about the hair growing on his face. She was going to make sure that was he was better groom when she married him.

Another thing she noticed about the pictures, was that everyone was dressed in the same manner as Tal's native look that replicated his hometown's spirit...The Assassin of the North. When they painted their faces and put hoods over their heads, nobody would have been able to tell who was who. Any one of them could be mistaken for Tal. This was planned she found out when she read the letter. Their plan was to attack from multiple angles and locations at once. When the enemy would think they had one cornered, another member of the team would pop out.

In the letter, Katara read how they were also receiving locals from the region who wished to help. They were slowly recruiting a small defense force. This would allow the U.R. Army to send more troops to the Shi Wong Desert or to help in the Foggy Bottom Swamp with the U.R. Navy. As long as Tal held control of the pass, the Northern Earth Kingdom free to become the newly renamed Northern Republic. Tal wrote also about how many people in the region, although some had harbored Equalist ideals, they had decided to side with the young Avatar. This meant that almost everyone in the region was on his side. The region would survive as long as Tal held the pass.

Although she now had a letter from him, Katara was still missing Tal greatly. It was soon getting to her. Katara, when around her family and friends, seemed to be fine. But when alone in her room, Katara found herself to be prone to crying fits whenever she thought of Tal. Another month without him ended with her becoming more isolated. Tal's sisters saw this, so they tried to get their friend/future sister-in-law to go out with them to see a new movie.

Seeing that her friends saw her pain and wanted to help her, Katara went along. The movie they were going to see wasn't the best according to the newspapers, but it did star a actor that she and her fellow girls all had crushes on since their early childhoods. They went out to lunch first at Narook's, and then went to the movie theater. A few minutes after they took their seats up near the back of the theater, the film started.

Just like the other films being shown, it was now all in color, but there were also a few trailers for upcoming films or a commercial for some new Equi-Tech product. But today's showing also included a U.R. news bulletin video about the fighting in the Earth Kingdom. The short film started with the title _The Battle of Wolfbat Pass_. This made Katara cringe in her seat. She had not heard from Tal in a month, this was very recent. The fighting at the pass had escalated into a all out battle. She was sitting in between Tai and Tay, they held her hands as she grasped at the idea that something bad had happened to Tal.

The voice of the film's narrator sounded in the theater. "_In a remote mountain pass in the new Northern Republic. Earth Kingdom troops try to get though a nearly immovable foe. While United Republic forces fight in other areas on the continent, only a small band of lightly armed troops are going up against an army numbering in the tens of thousands." _When she heard the number, Katara's eyes widened in fear as she watched as footage of Earth Kingdom troops advanced up a small winding road towards a small gap between two large mountains.

_"The enemy, although having the advantage of numbers on their side, have forgotten that no matter how powerful, they are only human when fighting against the sheer raw power of the elements."_As soldiers marched up the road. The camera began to show small teams of soldiers dressed in only simple civilian clothes, carrying rifles, bows, swords, and rockets into positions among the many large boulders that dotted the sides of the pass. "_The leader of this rebel group has given the general of this army the chance to surrender many times...all of which were turned down."_

Katara watched as the screen showed a single person standing on top one of the boulders. He was spotted and the nearest Earth Kingdom tank, the outdated earthbending powered version leftover from Avatar Aang's time, moved to close in. "_An Earth Kingdom tank, one of the enemy's most powerful weapons, spots their key target...the rebel's leader." _Katara was shocked as she watched a the person, dressed like one of Tal's men, simply outstretched an arm and made the tank levitate off the ground. The screen showed the tank hover there for few seconds as its crew leapt from it, when the entire crew was out, the tank was thrown into the mountain side with great force.

The force was strong enough to cause a rockslide to begin. Troops began to retreat down the mountain road while earthbenders used bending to stem the oncoming torrent of rocks and boulders. _"As you can see, the enemy is clearly outclassed by this one person."_ The camera angle changed and now showed dozens of similar tanks advancing up the slope in a column with thousands of troops marching behind them on foot. Even more tanks followed after that. _"No matter what the enemy sustains in casualties...they refuse to surrender. This routine of attacking only to be beaten back has happened everyday now for a month. But this time, the Earth Kingdom threw in everything they had. But they clearly are outmatched."_

_"The locals do not want their home to be controlled anymore by a man who has never even left Ba Sing Se. These people risked their lives to drive back their common enemy." _Suddenly, the lead tank in the column was taken out by a rocket fired by someone who had been hiding behind a large rock halfway up a nearby mountainside. Others were taken out the same way, trapping the attacking troops. _"Now you will see the one warrior who won this battle." _

The figure who a minute before had metalbended a once thought unbendable metal tank, stood where everyone could see him. The camera was nearby and had a spectacular shot of what happened next. Katara and the others in the theater gasped in awe as the figure removed his hood to reveal the rebel leader.

It was Tal. And from the look of his two different colored glowing eyes...he was in the Avatar State. _"Behold! The savior of the north! The young man you are looking at is no other than the new Avatar...Tal!"_

Almost as if on cue, Tal moved his arms and the ground began to shake. Rockslides began to form at the summits of the nearby mountains. His fellow soldiers and follower easily ran out of the way of the falling rocks as the landslides hit the tanks and buried them. Tal, still in the Avatar State, demonstrated his unbelievable power by controlling the rocks to form a wall surrounding the attacking soldiers. Nobody was buried alive, but they were now in a large hole that trapped them.

_"And with that, what is now being called _'The Battle of Wolfbat Pass'_, came to an end. Few people, whether friend or foe, were killed."_ The scene now shifted to the general of the Earth Kingdom army formally surrendering to Tal, by giving the Avatar his sword. _"Here we see the enemy general surrendering to Avatar Tal. While we thought that the captured troops would be sent to a former Equalist prisoner camp, the Avatar showed his humbleness by allowing the entire army to return home...one the sole condition that the Earth Kingdom never attack the Northern Republic ever again."_

Katara was one the verge of tears as she watched as her fiancé sat on top f the cab of a local's truck as he and his small band of rebels paraded through the streets of the once Equalist stronghold of Wolfbat Falls. The film showed him and is fighters being happily greeted by the townsfolk as they celebrated their independence from the Earth Kingdom. The audio of the film echoed through the theater as the crowd shouted Tal's name over and over again as they waved tiny flags displaying the new flag of the Northern Republic.

The film ended as a much larger version of the flag was hoisted up the main flagpole of Wolfbat Falls. The last image was the fluttering flag which bore a large compass symbol in the center flanked by a snowflake on top, a row of pine trees on the bottom, a sun to one side mirrored by a crescent moon on the other. Katara heard loud clapping from the other people in the crowd in the theater. She was crying now and looked over to see Tai and Tay also crying from seeing their brother free their homeland.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the theater watching the actual movie. It was okay but definitely not the actor's or director's best work. But no one seemed to really care, especially the five young adults up in back. Katara just closed her eyes, dreaming about where Tal was headed now. She didn't want to open her eyes mainly because on each other side was Tal's sisters snuggling with their fiancés, clearly not paying attention to the movie at all. As for Katara, she didn't even watch the movie, she just kept her eyes closed as she dreamed that she was alongside Tal during the next part of his journey to stop the tyranny of the Earth King.

* * *

Another action packed chapter. Tal really now begins to take after Avatar Kyoshi, all war-like, but still only kill when necessary. Maybe if I return to find a lot of favs, or follows, or better yet...some reviews, I'll try and make the next chapter a bit of a fluff chapter, with more on who is really behind all the chaos.

Take care and try not to miss me too much..I'll be too busy sweating to death training in the deserts of California.


End file.
